On the World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the United Nations Organization (UNO) has focused its message on preventing infectious diseases at work, in particular, those with the new coronavirus SARS-Cov-2. The European Commission published last week a guide on how to get back to work after mandatory isolation so as to prevent the Covid-19 spread.
Economic activity needs to be restarted so as to prevent this spread, warns the UN, which this year encourages tripartite discussions on occupational safety between governments, employers and workers’ representatives.
Last week, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) published, in cooperation with the European Commission, a guide of work safety and health. It offers advice for employers on how to manage return to the workplace after the mandatory isolation and work from home during the pandemic.
The advice includes reducing activities to the ones that are absolutely essential in order to function, limiting interaction with clients, distancing workers or installing partitions between those seated less than 6.5 ft away from each other, facilitating individual transport and enabling employees to take over some of the hygiene tasks necessary for their work posts.
The World Day for Safety and Health at Work was established in 2003 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, with the purpose to prevent work accidents and consolidate social dialogue between governments, employers and workers’ representatives.
New workplace risks are associated with production processes in new domains such as nanotechnology and biotechnology, with social issues like workforce decrease and migration, with temporary work, self-employment and the informal economy. The most frequent health problems in the workplace are musculoskeletal conditions and stress.
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