EU-OSHA Blog

With the occasion to mark the World OSH Day of 28 April 2022 and within the scope of the EC funded IPA Action 2020-2022, the Ministry of Labour of Serbia invited EU-OSHA to enhance OSH awareness raising and knowledge sharing for OSH stakeholders. Following the conclusion of the OSH award conference (see information on the related blog article below), EU-OSHA introduced the topic of “Teleworking and avoiding too much sitting” to an audience of around 30 participants representing national enterprises, University professors and University students.

Following the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and the implementation of health restrictions, teleworking became more frequent as many workers could continue to carry on work from home. Although home-based teleworking has potential advantages, it could also be detrimental to teleworkers' health and contribute to the development or exacerbation of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs), as well as to pain, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular complaints, certain types of cancers, premature death. 

Currently, not all EUMS regulate in detail teleworking. There are pending issues as the obligation deriving from the Framework Directive (89/391/EC) to how best implement individual Risk Assessment for each teleworker.

Overall, as human bodies are designed for movement, the presentation provided to the audience important tips on how to tackle the main work-related MSD risk factors related to teleworking, such as workstation ergonomic and body postures, work environment factors, sedentary behaviour and physical (in)activity, work organisation factors and psychosocial risk factors.

The contents of the presentation are available on the here.