Report 2015

Gyula Szabó Event

What has been done in 2015?

Ergonomics for managing the work related stress’

Our main event, the European Month for Ergonomics provided food for thought on the issue ‘ergonomics for managing the work related stress’.

Standardization

Attendance to CEN meetings concerning ergonomics and standards:

  • CEN TC 122 in Prag

  • PPE and ergonomics in the Netherlands

What has been done in 2015?

Ergonomics for managing the work related stress’

Our main event, the European Month for Ergonomics provided food for thought on the issue ‘ergonomics for managing the work related stress’.

Standardization

Attendance to CEN meetings concerning ergonomics and standards:

  • CEN TC 122 in Prag

  • PPE and ergonomics in the Netherlands

Letter sent to the EU Commission on the FEES involvement in the ergonomics standards and asking for support by the EU Commission (to be uploaded on the FEES website ?).

PPE and ergonomics

Attendance to PPE Directive working group in Brussels

Ergonomics and creativity

We had symposiums In Lisbon with APERGO and in Paris with SELF on the issue “ergonomics and creativity” in order to initiate a debate on this issue at the European level and to prepare the congress of the International Ergonomics Association organized by the SIE in Florence in 2018.

Ergonomics and machinery

Organization with ETUI and attendance of two meetings in Brussels in order to prepare the project “ergonomics and machinery”

Attendance in European conferences

  • SAFERA meeting in Paris

  • ETUI conference on women at work and health in Brussels;

  • ESF conference in Brussels;

  • CREE Council and seminar in Riga;

  • ERGOWORK conference in Poland;

  • KETs (Key enabling technologies) conference in Strasburg

  • A+A meeting in Dusseldorf

  • OSHA campaign closing event in Bilbao

Organization of the FEES Council in Paris on the 26th September 2015:

11 ergonomics societies attended or were represented (from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland) and the chair of CREE.

During the meeting have been adopted:

  • The comeback of the Croatian ergonomics society in FEES.

  • The financial and the activity report.

  • The renewal of the executive for a new three years mandate of the chair Sylvain Leduc and the secretary general, Pascal Etienne.

The main projects to be developed in 2016

FEES will continue regular activities mentioned above. Detailed plans:

Ergonomics and creativity

The aim of the project is to organize events in the frame of national congresses or separately, in order to federate at European level the initiatives decided by the members societies: symposiums are under preparation this year in Italy, the Netherlands, …

The main challenges of this project is to question the participants about:

  • Are ergonomists able to be creative and to produce work that is both original and appropriate?

  • How can ergonomists contribute to design work environments for creativity?

  • How can ergonomics help organizations to better use its internal resources for product and process innovation?

  • Can the existing ergonomics knowledge on work environments for comfort, health and safety be applied to foster creativity and innovation in organizations?

Ergonomics and machinery

This is a FEES / ETUI joint project on the issue ‘workers representatives and ergonomists cooperation in Europe’ in the field of the design and use of machines: the feedback methodology used recently on products such as forklift-trucks, agricultural machinery by ETUI will be used in the project.

The main results expected of this Ergonomics and Machinery project are:

  • the mapping of ergonomics and machinery in Europe in order to enrich the different existing networks

  • to consider the social dialogue on these OSH issues,

  • to consider the possibility to have some national relay via FEES in European countries, according to the different national backgrounds.

Information is gathered on the activities conducted by ergonomists in the field of machines and ergonomic in their countries, for example:

  • Academic and expert resources in the field of machines and ergonomics,

  • Debates inside the standardization groups on ergonomics issues,

  • Innovative projects / symposiums in the field of ergonomics design of machines.

A questionnaire is under preparation and a new meeting on this project will take place in March 2016 in Paris.

The joint FEES + CREE project.

The aim of the project is to promote ergonomics and to support the ergonomic practice. A joint project group has been set up in order to decide the joint actions to put in place, such as:

  • The coordination of information exchange with other competent bodies in Europe ;

  • The gathering of information on ergonomics training in Europe ;

  • The organization of experiences sharing on the work of ergonomists practitioners ;

  • The setup of an ergonomics promotion action plan, such as the workshops that are organized before the CREE meetings.

Ergonomics and ergonomists in global companies

FEES intends to organize a workshop with ergonomists in big European companies on issues of common interest for ergonomists working inside these companies, such as:

  • How theses global companies manage the ergonomics programs and allow ergonomists to cooperate in the various production sites?

  • What is the implementation and the impact of the various reporting systems in the field of OHS (including the ISO 26800 and ISO 6385 standards)?

  • The working conditions evaluation and improvement in the production sites outside Europe.

  • FEES representatives have been in touch with several ergonomists in global companies that are interested and associated in this project.

Participation in Conference and seminars

  • Attendance to the Ergonomics conference in Croatia in April 2016: lecture on behalf of FEES.

  • Attendance of the IEHF conference in April (?) in Leeds (?)

  • Standardization activities: attendance to the CEN TC 122 /CAG meeting in June (Delft)

  • An ESF / FEES initiative is under preparation on the issue “personal protective equipment”

  • A seminar will be organized jointly with CREE with the Slovenian ergonomists at the end of the year in order to develop ergonomic knowledge and competencies in Slovenia.

  • Initiatives to promote actions for Eur. Erg. are to be held in Netherland in November

  • Participation to the OHS wiki platform

  • Attendance to the PPE and machines Directives working groups

  • Participation in the OSHA initiatives on the issue « ageing at work »

  • Participation of FEES in the SAFERA network (interventions et researches on industrial safety) and in the financial support of ETPIS project (European technological platform for Industrial safety)