Givi Meishvili

There is a growing white collar workforce and more and more employees are falling ill due to unhealthy workloads. An increasingly borderless work life creates difficulties for individuals to set limits on the working day. What one person experiences as an advantage, can feel stressful for another.

All companies must comply with health and safety regulations. However, the safety procedures and the spread of information about the subject are not sufficient to avoid accidents. It is really useful for companies to create a network and cooperate actively to improve safety.

On the basis of enquiries by German and Swiss accident insurers that began in 2011 it had become clear that tampering with safety devices on machines in factories had become very widespread. A study carried out by the German Statutory Accident Insurance (DGUV) showed that 37 per cent of safety devices on metalworking machines had been tampered with. Safety devices that have been tampered with significantly increase the risk of using machinery and lead to severe occupational accidents with their attendant suffering and high costs.

The web page "Safety and Work" (www.safety-work.org) - developed as part of the working programme for small and medium-sized enterprises of the ISSA’s Special Commission on Prevention - is currently operated and maintained by 21 international partners from seven different countries under the auspices of the BGN. It has been online since 2011 and is available in German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. The partners involved are from non-commercial organisations such as, for example, statutory insurers, employer and employee organisations and welfare organisations.

In March of 2015 the German Statutory Pension Insurance Scheme (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund) launched a new consulting service specially tailored to the needs of employers and firms. One of the aims of this service for firms is to reinforce preventively and sustainably employee health.

Ageing at work was a two year project (2007-2009) within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 of the European Commission.

The project was led by Prevent in Belgium and has partners in Greece (EWORX), Ireland (WRC), the Netherlands (TNO and Hogeschool Utrecht) and Poland (NIOM).

Project Aims

The project aimed at producing, testing and promoting training for human resource professionals on age management with a particular focus on health (i.e. integrated workplace health management).

These are physical spaces located in the workplace prepared and equipped to provide privacy, hygiene, and comfort to the employee during the breastfeeding stage. There, she can breastfeed the baby and/or express breast milk, to store it and extend its use. Several evidence-based scientific studies show the benefits of breastfeeding in the short, mid and long-term regarding the improvement of the population's health.

Medical committees issue decisions determining the percentage of disability caused by occupational accidents or diseases. Moreover they intervene in the cases of discrepancies over treatment or advice concerning return to work, and to determine the occupational nature of an accident. The management model used is entirely digital and provides a simple, effective and rapid tool for workers, reducing the time taken to process each step and offering the possibility of providing medical consultations when the application is made by the worker, thereby improving the service.