News

As part of its 2021 work programme, A Union of vitality in a world of fragility, the European Commission will bring forward a new European Union OSH Strategic Framework.

You have until 1st March to provide your feedback on the future EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work (2021-2027). 

The German prevention report 2020 was recently published (in german). 

The statutory health insurance companies are obliged to finance company health promotion measures. The German Prevention Guide defines the quality standards for the measures. 

The legal basis for the commitment of the health insurance companies in this field can be found in §20b SGBV (Social Code V). In 2019, the health insurance funds spent 239,911,574 Euros for this segment of prevention services, which corresponds to 3.28 euros per insured person. This amount was both higher than in the previous year (2.37 euros) and above the benchmark for 2019 of 3.15 euros. Of this amount, the health insurance funds actually spent 0.77 euros in hospitals and nursing homes, i.e. for health promotion in care. In the last ten years, the health insurance companies have been able to win over more and more companies for health promotion and prevention measures. In 2019, 23,221 businesses could be reached directly. This corresponds to an increase of 19% compared to the previous year. As in previous years, health promotion measures were most frequently carried out in the manufacturing sector. Here the employees are often exposed to great physical strain, which is why initiatives to reduce and compensate for these strains are necessary

In 2019, the health insurance companies were able to reach 2.3 million employees directly; 8% of the companies had a high proportion of “unskilled” employees. In these companies, it can be assumed that there will be an increased demand for WHP.

In September 2020, the HORIZON2020 H-WORK project "Multilevel interventions to promote mental health in SMEs and public workplaces" is officially entering its implementation phase: the needs analysis. In a recently published article you can get a full description of the concept and methodology of the project. 

H-WORK project has recently published its first newsletter.

This  free WHO course on OSH for health workers has aproximatively a duration of one hour and consists of  the following sections: Introduction, Infectious risks to health and safety, Physical risks to health and safety, Psychosocial risks to health and safety and Basic occupational health and safety in health services.

The Spanish occupational medicine association has recently published a vulnerability criteria guideline for COVID-19 in workers. They describe it as a tool to identify the more vulnerable workers for COVID-19 that will be useful to value their work limitations.

ILO has published recently a guide with practical and actionable recommendations for effective teleworking that are applicable to a broad range of actors; to support policymakers in updating existing policies; and to provide a flexible framework through which both private enterprises and public sector organizations can develop or update their own teleworking policies and practices. It includes case examples and a list of tools and resources.

42% of Spanish workers present symptoms of anxiety derived from COVID-19.

Affor presents the results of the research done in Spain and seven Latin American countries among working population from April to June. 

They have also asked and made available interviews to six OSH experts on how to tackle psychosocial risks after COVID-19.

Social distancing is important for containing COVID-19 at work. The French Insitute for Health and Safety at wotk-INRS has made available MAVIMPLANT a tool for redesigning work spaces respecting social distancing rules in four sectors: 1) Hotels, cafes, restaurants, 2) Garages, 3) Logistics warehouses , 4) Bakeries, pastry shops, ice-cream saloons.