EU-OSHA launches Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2020-2022
12/10/2020
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has launched its 2020-2022 campaign — Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load — which focuses on work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
The launch marks the start of a programme of events and actions aimed at raising awareness of this issue — which affects millions of workers across Europe — and how to tackle it.
Despite legislation and initiatives aimed at preventing them, around three in every five workers suffer from MSDs and they remain the most common work-related health complaint in Europe, affecting workers in all jobs and sectors.
Repetitive movements, prolonged sitting and heavy lifting are just some of the risk factors that contribute to these conditions, which can affect the muscles, joints, tendons or bones. The negative impact that they have on workers’ quality of life is clear.
MSDs are preventable and manageable. By working together, EU-OSHA and its partners aim to show this by bringing information, tips and tools to workplaces across Europe, encouraging people in every sector to make tackling MSDs a priority.
Measures to prevent and manage MSDs are often simple and inexpensive, and this is one of the key messages of the Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load campaign. The campaign will reach out to workers and employers across all sectors, with a particular focus on high-risk sectors, such as health care and early education.
Supporting workers with chronic MSDs to remain in work will also be a key focus, along with the need to consider psychosocial risks and worker diversity, and to adopt collaborative approaches to MSD management — involving workers, employers, healthcare providers and other stakeholders.
Special attention will be given to emerging risks, arising from, for instance, digitalisation and new technologies and ways of organising work. This is particularly timely in light of COVID-19, which has forced many workers out of offices and into working from home. MSDs and home-based teleworking is a priority area for the campaign.
