EU-OSHA Launches Campaign Promoting Healthy Workplaces for all Ages

The world's largest campaign to promote sustainable work and healthy ageing for all was launched earlier in April in Brussels by the European Commission and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in cooperation with the Netherlands EU Presidency.

The two-year Europe-wide campaign: Healthy Workplaces for All Ages, will focus on sustainable work and workplace safety and health in the context of the ageing workforce, the campaign provides a timely reminder that the younger workers of today are the older workers of tomorrow.

It is important that catering for the needs of Europe’s future workplaces and workers starts now. Workplaces that address the health challenges of an ageing workforce gain in productivity and this can only be good for both workers and good for business.

The campaign focuses on Europe’s enterprises (both private and public) and the need to promote sustainable work and healthy ageing from the beginning of working life. In doing so, they will be protecting their workers’ health up to and beyond retirement age and their organisations’ productivity.

Brenig Moore, Operations Director at Astutis commented:

"With on-going discussions about the future of occupational health and safety within the EU and further afield, the campaign is timely and will always be relevant. It is important that the discussion about the future of workers and workplaces remains open. We know that good workplace safety records equate to improved productivity which is shown in the bottom line. Campaigns highlighting the importance of occupational safety for both a young and ageing workforce, in short, across the spectrum is good news for employees and businesses alike."

Christa Sedlatschek, Director of EU-OSHA, also underlined the business case for this campaign topic:

"By focusing on sustainable working throughout working life, not only can all workers better protect their health, but companies are likely to see major benefits too. Healthy workers are productive workers, and productive workers are essential to any effective organisation: it’s a win–win situation. We therefore highly value the cooperation between EU-OSHA and our focal points, official campaign partners and media partners and thank them for all their efforts in previous campaigns. We look forward to working with them again over the next two years."

 This campaign’s objectives are four-fold:

• to promote sustainable work and healthy ageing from the beginning of working life;
• to highlight the importance of risk prevention throughout working life;
• to assist employers and workers (including in small and medium-sized enterprises) by providing information and tools for managing occupational safety and health in the context of an ageing workforce;
• to facilitate information and good practice exchange.

This campaign topic is based on a European Parliament project conducted by EU-OSHA; "Safer and healthier work at any age", along with various other EU-OSHA reports on safety and health in the context of the ageing workforce.

As part of this new campaign, EU-OSHA is also releasing an e-guide on managing safety and health for an ageing workforce.

Find out more about the Healthy Workplaces for All Ages campaign at the campaign website.