National economies and OSH

For governments, their regulators and agencies it is important to improve occupational health and safety. By doing so, they reduce the cost to society arising from injury and illness, whilst at the same time improving competitiveness and national efficiency.

Countries with less developed OSH systems spend a far higher percentage of GDP on work-related injury and illness – taking resources away from more productive activities.

Many Member States therefore aim to promote improved occupational safety and health as part of national strategies to improve their national economies. As many of the costs of poor health and safety are hidden or borne by society rather than enterprises, there is widespread interest in encouraging enterprises to improve OSH through incentives.

Good OSH affects national competitiveness and productivity by:

• Increasing the availability of labour and labour force participation – by reducing the number of people who retire early or are unavailable for work due to work-related injury and illness
• Reducing the social costs of injury and illness – a smaller proportion of GDP is spent on healthcare for people unable to work
• Increasing the number of hours that people are able to work, partly by reducing the number of people having to leave work to care for family members
• Increasing the ability of older workers to remain in employment
• Improving productivity, by stimulating more efficient working methods and technologies.

OSH will have a particularly important role to play, with the European population ageing. With more older people needing to stay in work, catering for their OSH requirements is a key factor. This can include making the job fit the person rather than the person fit the job, through workplace modifications such as providing less physically demanding work and flexible working hours, and provision of ergonomically suitable equipment and work spaces.

For Government agencies and other bodies aiming to communicate the ‘business case’ to enterprises, our Report “ Health and Safety – Campaigning ” - covers the basic principles you need to bear in mind when running a publicity campaign, whether at European, national or workplace level.