Brussels, 19/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Agency for Health and Safety at Work (Bilbao, Spain) has just published a new report entitles "Safety-health at work and employability: programmes, practices and experiences" from which one can ascertain that safety and health in the workplace can contribute towards the improvement of worker employability. This may occur in several ways, underlines the report: by organising positions and work areas, by ensuring the existence of a safe and healthy work environment, through training and recycling, thanks to the assessment of work needs, as well as medical surveillance.
The report presents 26 case studies carried out by organisations from 13 Member States (Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Ireland). These studies favour (supported by examples) a pro-active approach through four methods: 1) accident prevention and illnesses of a professional origin; 2) the reinstatement of sick workers through the provision of services or the adapting of the workplace in order to help the sick or injured person recover his abilities and reintegrate the working environment; 3) the long-term reintegration of handicapped persons; 4) the promotion of health in the work place.
For details see: http: //agency.osha.eu.int/publications/reports/employability (for the report in English) and http: //agency.eu.int/publications/factsheets/facts12 (for summaries in 11 languages). A printed version of the report may be obtained from the Publications Office (Luxembourg) http: //eur-op.eu.int at the price of EUR 13.05 (VAT excl.).