Health and safety at work concerns everyone. It is valuable to the employee and it is beneficial to the employer. European Week for Safety and Health at Work takes place from 23 to 27 October. It will launch a two-year campaign on safe and healthy work in the digital age, presented by European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit.
At 3MON, we care about the safety and health of your employees. That’s why we have decided to take part in the Healthy Workplaces 2023-2025 campaign.
Let’s take a closer look at what this campaign is actually about.
Digital technologies in the workplace
Digital technologies are changing not only the way we work, but also where and when we work. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are supporting and replacing staff working in hazardous environments. Big data makes monitoring systems more efficient.
Remote working offers employees more autonomy and flexibility.
Based on EU-OSHA’s ESENER 2019 survey, more than 80% of workplaces across Europe use PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices.
EU workers use the most:
– 73% laptops, tablets and smartphones
– 11% wearable devices
– 5% machines or robots with artificial intelligence
– 3% robots that communicate with the worker
In 2022, 17% of employees worked predominantly from home, 90% of them using digital technology.
Psychosocial risks such as time pressures, long or irregular working hours, poor communication and collaboration, and job insecurity are most commonly associated with the use of digital technologies.
Research has shown that the rapid digitisation of the workplace has created many new opportunities for efficiency and productivity. However, it has also brought new challenges for occupational safety and health (OHS).
These risks need to be properly assessed and managed to ensure that workers in
Europe can carry out their activities safely and without endangering their health.
Healthy Workplaces 2023 – 2025 Campaign Goal
It is important to raise awareness of the importance of OSH in the digital age and to ensure that a human-centred approach to digitalisation is applied in the workplace.
“Digital technologies in the workplace are safe and beneficial for workers as long as potential risks are properly assessed and managed”
The campaign therefore aims to:
- to improve knowledge about the safe and productive use of digital technologies in all sectors
- to raise awareness of the OSH challenges related to the digital transformation of work
- raise awareness of emerging risks and opportunities
- promote risk assessment and safe management of digital technologies in the workplace
- encourage the exchange of information and best practices between relevant stakeholders
Opportunities for digitisation in the workplace
The use of digital technologies in the workplace brings new opportunities for employees and employers, including new opportunities to improve OHS:
- Automation shifts repetitive, labour-intensive and dangerous tasks to machines.
- Robotics and artificial intelligence are supporting and replacing workers in hazardous
- Workers and workers in hazardous work environments.
- Digital and performance-enhancing technologies (e.g. exoskeletons) improve access to the labour market for disadvantaged workers such as those with disabilities, migrants or workers located in areas with a lack of employment opportunities.
- Better monitoring combined with big data allows for more timely and effective interventions.
- Better work-life balance, flexibility and autonomy for
- workers who can work from home.
OHS challenges when using digital technologies
Challenges and risks to OSH arising from the use of digital technologies in the workplace:
- Digital monitoring, loss of autonomy, intensification of work and pressure to perform to a certain standard.
- Middle management tasks are replaced by algorithms that assign tasks to subordinates and monitor their performance.
- Loss of control over work, fragmentation of work tasks into very simple tasks that
- to be carried out in a standard way, a narrowing of the workload and a loss of skills to perform
- the loss of job tasks.
- Isolation of workers, increase in virtual interactions and loss of mutual support.
- Incorrect or unfair decisions about workers resulting from
- from automated or semi-automated processes using data and/or software that contain errors.
- Incentive and penalty systems and worker performance evaluation.
- Unclear OHS accountability and applicability of the existing OHS regulatory framework.
- Mobility, flexibility, continuous availability and blurring of work-life boundaries.
Priority areas for the Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2023-2025
The campaign focuses on five priority areas. They explore the opportunities arising from digital technologies while addressing all potential challenges:
- Working for digital platforms
- Automating tasks
- Remote and hybrid working
- Managing workers through AI
- Intelligent digital systems
By focusing on these areas, promoting best practices and raising awareness of the importance of this topic, a safer, healthier and more sustainable digital working environment can be offered to all workers in the European Union. The Healthy Workplaces Campaign is organised by EU-OHSA, which contributes to making Europe a safer, healthier and more productive workplace. The agency has also invited scientists and OSH professionals to take part in the campaign.
3MON provides OHS services and we consider it a kind duty to take part in this campaign and bring you information on the impact of digital technologies on work and workplaces and how to deal with them. If you are interested in this campaign and want to know more, please download the full Healthy Workplaces 2023 – 2025 campaign guide, Safe and Healthy Work in the Digital Age.
Are you a company in industry and using digital technology to manage and prevent risks? Enter the competition to win a Healthy Workplaces Campaign Good Practice Award.
Are you interested in our services? Contact us.
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