EU-OSHA Blog

On 14 September 2023, within the framework of the EU funded IPA project 2023-2025, EU-OSHA organised an on-line seminar addressed to IPA Focal point managers and OSH stakeholders, with the scope to present the recently published guide "Heat at Work - Guidance for Workplaces" and to introduce the main OSH risks.

Following the opening and welcome to the participants by the agency Executive Director, William Cockburn, Elke Schneider, senior policy advisor of the agency, presented the EU-OSHA publication and introduced the main OSH risk factors related to climate change and impacting on workers' health.

Derran William, senior OSH advisor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, shared his professional experience on climate change and work risks and provided a comparative analysis of the temperatures raising in the Western Balkans and Türkiye, on the related OSH risks and the suggested remedies.

Michail Kandarakis, Labour inspection and OSH specialist of the ILO project office Qatar, introduced the heat stress mitigation strategies adopted by ILO in Qatar, which include adoption of new legislation, as best practice to be considered in the new context of global warming, which is already reaching the whole Europe, and in the perspective of OSH risks prevention in workplaces.

Following the presentations, the participants had the opportunity to raise questions to the speakers and share their own experiences. Representatives from the Ministry of Labour of North Macedonia (EU-OSHA focal point) and the NGO MOSHA shared very interesting aspects of heat at work risks impacting on workers and proposed mitigating measures.

The IPA webinar was attended by 50 participants from the Western Balkans and Türkiye as well as from representatives of governments of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.