Factsheet 91 - Challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming OSH into university education — Summary of a Report
Future engineers, architects, medical professionals and business administrators and managers will all need to take account of occupational safety and health (OSH) aspects in their working lives. This report and the cases in it demonstrate that there are more challenges to integrating OSH into university-level education compared with other levels of education. However, the cases also show that steps are being taken to mainstream OSH into university education in a variety of disciplines and in a variety of ways.
:
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
:
04.02.2010
In 2009 and 2010, the Agency commissioned an update to its previous research on gender issues at work , which found that inequality both inside and outside the workplace can have an effect on the health and safety of women at work. This summary provides a policy perspective and is meant to contribute to the task outlined by the European strategy on health and safety at work for EU-OSHA’s European Risk Observatory, “examining the specific challenges in terms of health and safety posed by the more extensive integration of women in the labour market”. It provides a statistical overview of the trends in employment and working conditions, hazard exposure and work-related accidents and health problems for women at work. It explores selected issues (combined exposures, occupational cancer, access to rehabilitation, women and informal work, and “emerging” female professions such as home care and domestic work). The research highlights the type of work carried out by women, issues faced by younger and older women, the growth of the service sector, violence and harassment, and increasingly diversified working time patterns as major risk factors.
The report presents the prevalence of violence and harassment at work based on international and national statistics, as well as the results of scientific studies on antecedents and consequences of work-related violence. A survey of the Agency's Focal Point network suggest that there is still an insufficient level of awareness and recognition of problems with third-party violence and harassment in many EU Member States, and there is a clear need to promote and disseminate good practice and prevention measures which are sensitive to the national context. Some measures proposed by EU, ILO, WHO and national experts are included in the report.
Organisations deal with OSH in different ways: some organisations have little expertise in OSH and react to problems such as occupational accidents, work-related diseases and absenteeism in an ad hoc way, while others strive to manage OSH more systematically, and even proactively, by implementing OSH into the organisation’s overall management. This report aims to provide evidence and information on how OSH can be incorporated into general management and business, thereby achieving safer and healthier working environments, and better general organisational performance.
This report comprises three main parts, each with a different specific focus: (1) a literature review, (2) an overview of related policies, and (3) a report of case studies and good practice. Readers should refer to the appropriate sections of the report for more detailed discussions and further information about each area.
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