10
MAY 2016 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
A HEALTHY WORKPLACE NO
MATTER WHAT YOUR AGE
The European workforce is ageing fast. By 2030, employees aged over 55 are expected to make up 30% or more
of the total workforce in many EU countries. In the UK, 30% or more of the total workforce is already over 50, while
60-year-old and older employees constitute 23% of the workforce, and this figure is set to rise to 30.7% by 2020.
This demographic trend
creates significant challenges and opportunities
for both employers and
their workforces. That’s why
the European Agency for
Safety and Health at Work
(EU-OSHA) has launched the
Healthy Workplaces for All
Ages campaign. It is set to
alert European employers to
the urgency of the situation
and the need to respond to
it in a positive way.
The aims of the 2016-2017
Healthy Workplaces for All Ages
campaign are to promote sustainable work and healthy ageing
and the importance of risk prevention throughout working life;
to assist employers and workers
of all ages by providing information and tools for managing
occupational safety and health
(OSH) in the context of an ageing
workforce, and information and
good practice exchange in this
area.
Dr Christa Sedlatschek, Director of EU-OSHA, explained: “The
new campaign is not about age
itself, but about ageing throughout working life. We need to
improve the working lives of all
generations of workers, promoting sustainable work and healthy
ageing. Risk prevention will be at
the core of this.”
The British Safety Council, the
champion of health and safety in
Britain and the thought leader of
the sector, gives its wholehearted
support to this initiative. Through
its monthly magazine Safety
Pick up the
PRO Installer,
FREE, from
one of over
600 trade
counters.
‘it is essential to
influence existing
mindsets that equate
older employees with
higher-than average
costs and illness’
Management, a media partner of
the campaign, the British Safety
Council urges employers to get
onboard and warns against the
consequences of standing still.
Mike Robinson, Chief Executive
of the British Safety Council, said:
“The official retirement age in
EU Member States is increasing.
In the next two decades, a large
proportion of employees over 50
will leave work for ever, taking
their market expertise, professional experience and skills with
them. Meanwhile the demographic data suggests that there is
unlikely to be a sufficient supply
of younger people in Britain who
would replace retiring workers.
These facts cannot be ignored by
any employer.
“Retaining older workers will
become not only an economic but also a social imperative.
The companies that would be
prepared to retain older employees will remain more competitive
and diverse, with a greater pool
of skills and talent. However,
longer working lives would mean
greater exposure to a variety of
health-related risks. The management of issues such as disability
prevention, rehabilitation and return to work will increase in importance. Older workers are also
more vulnerable to certain hazards, particularly in an industrial
work environment. Therefore, the
intr oduction of specific measures
to ensure work safety and the
efficiency of older employees, as
well as age-sensitive risk assessments, would have to become a
key part of occupational health
and safety policies.”
Iris Cepero, editor of the British
Safety Council’s monthly publication Safety Management, which
regularly addresses the challenges of ageing workforce in Britain,
commented: “We are delighted to
support the EU-OSHA campaign
which deals with one of the most
fundamental issues in modern
society that cannot be ignored by
any business wishing to remain
competitive. The sustainable management of an ageing workforce
is challenging: some existing
employment practices need to
be reconsidered, management
training is necessary and in some
cases it is essential to influence
existing mindsets that equate
older employees with higher-than
average costs and illness.
“Truly modern employers
understand that by providing an
age-friendly working environment, they are creating a committed and motivated workforce
of all ages. This is the message
of the Healthy Workplaces for All
Ages campaign, which the British
Safety Council will continue
endorsing through its current and
future activities. During the next
two years, as a media partner,
Safety Management will promote
best practice in this area among
our readership.”
To find out more about the
campaign and how you can
get involved in it, visit:
www.healthy-workplaces.eu/
ADF PLASTICS LTD