KANBrief A European perspective
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has built up a very strong track record over 28 years. The world of work, however, is constantly changing and it is important that the agency be capable of meeting today’s challenges. We asked William Cockburn, who has been Executive Director of the Agency since 2023, about the current goals and work priorities.
What are your general goals for EU-OSHA in the years to come?
We have just started work on a new multi-annual strategy that will involve our management board, national Focal Points and staff in setting our course for the next ten years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the visibility of OSH and of the agency has increased significantly. This gives us an opportunity to expand our impact, but we have to recognize that we are unlikely to obtain additional resources to do so. Therefore, we need to improve efficiency in how we perform our three key functions: providing knowledge for policymaking and research; supporting workplace risk prevention through guides and tools; and promoting a positive prevention culture through networking and awareness raising.
The ‘Focal Point’ network of national authorities and their national networks involving social partners is a key asset of EU-OSHA and is unique among EU agencies. Strengthening the Focal Point network is therefore a key priority. We need to ensure a high level of engagement with national authorities and social partners at Member State level, so that they can support our research, promote our tools and guidance, and help us to raise awareness of the importance of safe and healthy workplaces.
What opportunities and challenges does digitalisation present for occupational safety and health?
The use of digital technologies in the workplace brings with it opportunities, such as relegating repetitive, labour-intensive and unsafe tasks to machines; obviating the need for workers in hazardous environments; improving access to the labour market for disadvantaged workers; and improving the work-life balance through the flexibility experienced by workers who can work from home. Additionally, ‘smart digital systems’ can improve risk prevention, for example through advanced monitoring of exposures. Our recent OSH Pulse survey shows that digital technologies are used to monitor noise, chemicals, dust, and gases in the working environment of 19% of European workers.
While digital technologies are rarely problematic in themselves, OSH risks tend to arise as a result of their poor design, implementation and use. If problems are to be avoided, the worker needs to be properly considered and involved, and put at the centre of each of these stages. Unfortunately, digitalisation often leads to workers experiencing a wide range of poor outcomes related to OSH, e.g. loss of autonomy, and work intensification. Job content becomes narrower and jobs are de-skilled, with workers experiencing increased isolation and the effects of automated decisions. According to our 2022 OSH Pulse survey, workers report that digital technologies result in them working alone (44%), increase surveillance of them (37%), reduce their autonomy (19%), determine the speed or pace of work (52%) and increase their workload (33%).
It is essential that we harness the great opportunities that digitalisation offers for safer, healthier and better work and that we avoid the risks. That’s the key message of our two-year campaign, ‘Safe and healthy work in the digital age’.
What needs to be done to make the circular economy a success story, including with regard to occupational health and safety?
Depending on how the Circular Economy (CE) is implemented and managed, it can lead to new risks, or it can present a significant opportunity for a just and sustainable transition, improving OSH at the same time as preserving the environment. But for the latter to happen, the workforce (including managers) needs to be adequately (re)skilled to work safely with new, circular processes.
Robust regulatory efforts are also necessary, for example to develop an EU-wide monitoring system to track substances contained in products so that they can be safely maintained, re-used or recycled, and to prevent imports of products that could put workers at risk during these processes.
The principle of ‘repair, reuse and recycle’ can be implemented safely only if workers have access to all the information they need at all times. A digital system that alerts workers to potential hazards would significantly contribute to improving OSH in such hazardous CE work processes.
Digital technologies certainly play a key role in the transition towards a CE, not only as an enabler of such digital monitoring, control and alert systems, but also by improving working conditions allowing the automation and remote monitoring of hazardous tasks, such as in waste sorting and recycling.
Within and between sectors and EU Member States, progress towards the implementation of a CE that benefits OSH could vary widely. Convergence will depend on ensuring sufficient support for all sectors and countries, especially those with fewer resources. Here again, EU-OSHA has a role to play.
