CEN and CENELEC have launched a new section on their website as part of their ongoing efforts to encourage the widest possible range of stakeholders to get involved in standardization activities and help shape the content of European Standards. The ‘Societal Stakeholders’ Toolbox’ is aimed in particular at supporting the participation of organizations that are concerned with defending the interests of consumers, protecting the environment, and promoting the health and safety of workers. Standards, which are documents that set out specifications and other technical information with regard to various kinds of products, materials, services and processes, can have significant impacts on the safety and well-being of consumers and workers, as well as on the wider society and the environment. Enabling organizations representing societal stakeholders to participate in the development of standards helps to ensure that all relevant concerns can be taken into account during the drafting process. The ‘Societal Stakeholders’ Toolbox’ can be accessed directly from the homepage of the CEN-CENELEC website. It provides practical advice to organizations representing consumers, workers and environmental interests on where to find information about ongoing standardization activities and how they can contribute to the standards development process at national, European and international levels. The toolbox has been developed by CEN and CENELEC in the framework of their ongoing collaboration with three umbrella organizations that represent the interests of specific interest groups within the European Standardization System. These organizations are: ANEC (the European consumer voice in standardisation), ECOS (European Environmental Citizens Organisation for Standardisation), and ETUI(European Trade Union Institute – Health and Safety Department). At national level, many members of CEN and CENELEC are also cooperating with societal stakeholders organizations. Based on existing examples of good practice, CEN and CENELEC are encouraging all of their members (in 33 European countries) to support the active involvement of societal stakeholders in standardization activities and to facilitate this by providing relevant information on their respective websites. The ‘Societal Stakeholders’ Toolbox’ was officially presented at the CEN-CENELEC New Year Cocktail Reception, which took place in Brussels on 22 January 2014.
Category: Knowledge domain
Jobs take their toll
The European Trade Union Institute organised a conference with strong ergonomics interest.
The EU debate on upping the retirement age is meaningful only if it includes working condi
The European Trade Union Institute organised a conference with strong ergonomics interest.
The EU debate on upping the retirement age is meaningful only if it includes working conditions, particularly unequal exposure to hazardous substances and the gender impact on the quality of working life. This is not just something for politicians and the establishment – it affects all workers.
Researchers, public officials, trade unionists and other social stakeholders explored these critical issues at a two-day conference on 10 and 11 December 2013 in Brussels. The conference looked in particular to three areas where the hardships of work are a big issue: building, motor manufacturing and shopwork.
Report sheds light on the key factors determining OSH practice
A new report from EU-OSHA describes the contextual and environmental factors that shape approaches to OSH management
A follow-up study to ESENER, the report finds that working environments in EU Member States have a dynamic and changing nature. However, the differences between them are significant. This insight helps to explain why EU work requirements are not applied in the workplace in a universal manner.
A new report from EU-OSHA describes the contextual and environmental factors that shape approaches to OSH management
A follow-up study to ESENER, the report finds that working environments in EU Member States have a dynamic and changing nature. However, the differences between them are significant. This insight helps to explain why EU work requirements are not applied in the workplace in a universal manner.
PPE – From protection against risks to hazards through protective equipment
3 October 2013 Fribourg/Freiburg, Switzerland
Organisers: Swiss Ergonomics Society (SwissErgo) and the Swiss Occupational Hygiene Association (SOHA)
All ergonomists, occupational hygienist, occupational safety specialists and other
interested persons are invited to actively join our event and submit their proposals.
3 October 2013 Fribourg/Freiburg, Switzerland
Organisers: Swiss Ergonomics Society (SwissErgo) and the Swiss Occupational Hygiene Association (SOHA)
All ergonomists, occupational hygienist, occupational safety specialists and other
interested persons are invited to actively join our event and submit their proposals.
The origin of this meeting was the programming mandate of the EC to CEN CLC BT “in the area of protective textiles and personal protective clothing (PPC) and equipment (PPE), including revision of existing European standards and other standardisation deliverables as appropriate”, where the mandate also includes the “exploring of existing standards in the field of ergonomics and comfort”.
Great lesson in ergonomics (Grande leçon d’ergonomie)
Université Ouverte des Humanités canal-u tv in the Science of Human (Sciences de l’Homme) French version series published seven chapter of “Great lesson in ergonomics” (Grande leçon d’ergonomie)
- the emergence of ergonomics,
- the concepts,
- the gearing down,
- the institutionalization,
- the practices,
- the diffusion,
- the perspectives
Link: http://www.canal-u.tv
SELF press release on arduousness at work
The French Language Ergonomics Society (SELF) welcomes that the Act dated 9th November 2010, regarding pensions reform, arduousness at work is now recognized by the French Labour Code and, therefore, employers are required to ensure its prevention.
The French Language Ergonomics Society (SELF) welcomes that the Act dated 9th November 2010, regarding pensions reform, arduousness at work is now recognized by the French Labour Code and, therefore, employers are required to ensure its prevention.
This new Act is a real opportunity to strengthen or even broaden the scope for the improvement of conditions for work performance by taking into account this reality, which has often been identified and analysed in ergonomics, in order to help reduce it more efficiently.
However, SELF is concerned by the orientations brought about in the definition to which arduousness
has been attributed in the Act and by the conditions for its prevention included in the decrees that
followed its publication. Having been considered in a very restrictive way, these orientations can lead
to the weakening of prevention models and practices and, more specifically, of those adopting the
ergonomics approach which places the actual work activity at the centre of its preoccupations.
Emerging in the context of pensions reform, arduousness at work first appears within the Social
Security Code with compensation as the objective point, allowing employees who would have
performed strenuous work during their career to retire early. Such departure due to strenuousness is
granted to workers with permanent disability rate (PD) of higher than or equal to 20%. For PDs below
10% no compensation is envisaged. For PD rates of between 10% and 20%, this right is open to those
workers who would have been exposed to certain types of occupational risk factors for a period of 17
years and, if their disability is related to the exposure in question. In order to determine the level of
such exposure, the Act provides for the employer to ensure the monitoring of workers “exposed to one
or more occupational risk factors determined by the decree and linked to dramatic physical constraints,
an aggressive physical environment or some work routines which may leave lasting, identifiable and
irreversible traces on their health” (CT-L4121 3-1). This latter statement is now systematically
repeated, in a number of publications, to define arduousness at work. It tends, in fact, to direct the
analysis of arduous situations toward the identification of ten risk factors, which have since been
specified by the decree, (1) and to act, in terms of prevention, on these factors. Yet, as seen above, this
definition is determined by compensation terms and not by prevention issues.
SELF warns about an approach on arduousness at work which, by directing action towards these risk
factors alone, is designed to prevent only those PD risks ranging between 10 and 20%, thereby
excluding any other form of damage to health, either by its nature or severity, related to the exercise of
strenuous activities. This would, in effect, imply addressing the risk for early retirement and not the
risk of harm to health. It would mean a serious drifting away from the right interpretation of the text.
The apparent lack of reference to the “psycho-social” dimension of the arduousness of working
conditions in this Act may also lead to a drift in the interpretation of the text. Indeed, this shortcoming
is, once again, applicable only to conditions for early retirement provided for in the case of PD rates of
between 10 and 20%. Yet, in the case of disability rates of over 20%, a wide range of diseases or
injuries resulting from work related accidents could be eligible for an early retirement on arduousness
grounds, including “psychiatric injury (2)” (cognitive impairment , anxiety disorders, depression, etc..).
In other words, though psycho-social risks are not taken into consideration in exposure records, they
are, nonetheless, likely to cause lasting, identifiable and irreversible traces on worker’s health which,
accordingly, would rate them similar to arduousness.
Finally, by assigning a direct causal relationship between exposure to certain factors of arduousness
and the onset of long-term effects on health, the Act tends to exclude any reference to the actual work
activity. Yet, arduousness of work cannot be understood without reference to work activity which it
affects. In ignoring this dimension, the Act could encourage expert analysis which is strictly technical
and normative or even legal, regarding factors of stress and associated thresholds. This approach can
be justified within the scope of negotiated compensation, but is highly restrictive in the field of
prevention.
In this context of reinforcing the legislation regarding the arduousness of work, which tends to
increasingly identify and recognize occupational hazards rather than anticipating them in order to
better protect the health of workers, SELF reaffirms the need to act upon work and its organization.
Ergonómia Európai Hónapja 2013
Ergonómia Európai Hónapja 2013: Ergonómia a kockázat-megelőzésért
Az Ergonómia Európai Hónapja (EEH) az európai ergonómia népszerűsítésének éves kampánya.
Az EEH-t az Európai Ergonómiai Társaságok Szövetsége (Federation of European Ergonomics Societies, FEES) kezdeményezi, és a nemzeti ergonómiai társaságok valósítják meg, Magyarországon a Magyar Ergonómiai Társaság (MET).
Az FEES az Európai Munkavédelmi Ügynökség (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, EU-OSHA) hivatalos partnere, a MET a magyar fókuszpont hálózat tagja.
Az EEH 2012 és 2013 az EU-OSHA éves Egészséges Munkahelyek kampányát támogatja. A kampány témája 2012-2013-ban:
Együtt a kockázatok megelőzéséért!
Az EEH 2012-2013 az ergonómiának a kockázat-megelőzésben betöltött szerepére fókuszál, az alábbi témában:
Ergonómia a kockázat-megelőzésért.
Az ergonómia alkalmazása minden résztvevő (menedzsment, tervezők, munkaegészségügyi és munkavédelmi szakemberek, művezetők és munkások) alapos együttműködését jelenti a munkahelyen. A részvételi és együttműködő megközelítést jelenleg szükségesnek tekintjük ahhoz, hogy az emberi tevékenység és a termelés minden vonatkozását számításba vegyük. Ez hasonló az EU-OSHA kampányban alkalmazott megközelítéssel.
A részvételi ergonómia régóta központi megközelítés az ergonómusok között.
Az ergonómusoknak vannak olyan tapasztalatai, amelyeket hasznosítani lehet az EU-OSHA kampányban.
European Month of Ergonomics 2010 – Ergonomics is a Key to Safe Maintenance
Ergonomics is a key to safe maintenance!
Ergonomics makes maintenance lighter, more fluent and more acceptable – and safer Proper ergonomics design takes account of the life-cycle of systems: besides their daily operation, also assembly, maintenance, cleaning, reparation, renovation and dismantling By following the ergonomics design principles, guidelines and procedures, given in European ergonomics standards (EN), maintenance conditions and activities can be optimized to the worker/operator
See the following examples of ergonomics considerations in maintenance activity – presented in order of their nature, physical, cognitive or organizational
Physical problems in maintenance work:
- working in unfavorable locations (e.g. in high places, in narrow spaces)
- working in awkward postures
- insufficient space for the hand movements or seeing, lack of free maintenance space
- excessive force required for operations e.g. in changing of components, in opening valves
- excessive physical workload in some tasks e.g. changing pumps without hoisting equipment
- poor lighting and thermal conditions, high noise and vibrations levels
- hazards, e.g. mechanical, electric, chemical
Cognitive (or mental) problems of maintenance work:
- visually poor displays and symbols, text not legible in varying environment
- use of maintenance equipment not intuitive
- maintenance procedures not logical, memorable or controllable
- instructions not easy-to-understand
- disturbance situations poorly instructed or guided
- other activities around, attention directed elsewhere
Organizational problems of maintenance:
- inappropriate division of tasks between the operator and the machine – e.g. lack of equipment for lightening heavy tasks
- inappropriate division of tasks between operators – unbalanced workload inappropriate working hours (shifts, extensive work periods) – reduced physical and mental performance
- poor communication between operators
- poor guidance of the operators
With the help of ergonomics knowledge and ergonomics approach, the maintenance conditions and activities inherently become good for the operator and good for the organization:
- better satisfaction, motivation and commitment of the operator
- lower rate of accidents and fewer sick leaves
- less disturbances and losses due to human error
- better quality, less careless work
- fluent and cost-effective maintenance, right operations in the correct way, in a minimum time, with minimum effort
- by proper ergonomics design, less need for corrections later, and fewer costs of late changes.
The presentation’s purpose is to clarify ergonomics and demonstrate how it is essential in improving maintenance conditions. FEES recommends that the EME 2010 relate to the Healthy Workplace campaign “Safe maintenance,” promoted by the EU-OSHA, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.