The main demographic development appears to be the further ageing of European Union work population. The number of people age 14 or younger has fallen from 24% in 1980 to 16% in 2005 while the number of over 65s has increased from 11% in 1980 to 14,5% in 2005. Population projections suggest that there will be a further sizeable increase in the share of the working population accounted for by people over 50 after 2010 coupled with a further slight decrease in the number of 20 to 30 years old. All EU member countries will experience these changes. This phenomenon has given rise to a pressing need to established strategies aimed at the effective utilization of the labour of aging workers. Important steps to meeting these strategies are to achieve an objective understanding of human characteristics, especially of those of ageing. Synergetic skills become more pronounced with age. On the other hand the risk of diminished level of work ability increases with age.

The topic of demographic change and ageing workforces has been on the agenda in Germany for several years now and the necessity of raising the level of employability has been stressed by politics as well as by the social partners. Nevertheless only a small – though rising – number of enterprises has actively engaged in adapting their working conditions to the specific abilities and competencies of different age groups among their employees.

Labour inspection may play an important role increasing the awareness in industry and business to this subject. Experience underlines the fact that “decent work” provides adequate and challenging working conditions for all groups of employees. Risk assessments may be developed into a suitable instrument to support enterprises relate to the needs of ageing workforces.

Work in Europe is changing, not only through changes in the economic, legislative, and employment structures but also in changes in the demographics of the European labour force. This has an impact when considering the occupational safety and health of these workers. The European workforce is getting older, and despite there being no specific OSH directive relating to older workers, as there is with younger workers, there is a legal obligation on employers to manage their safety and health taking a holistic approach, protecting workers through changes in work organisation, the work environment, and to attitudes towards older workers. The goal should be to arrange working conditions that contribute and make it possible for all to maintain working ability until the retirement and beyond.

Guideline 18 of the Employment Guidelines (2005 to 2008) calls for “support for active ageing, including appropriate working conditions, improved (occupational) health status and adequate incentives to work and discouragement of early retirement”. Eurofound a tripartite research institute has investigated the question of working conditions for older workers through the results of its European Working Conditions Survey carried out in 2005 in all the countries of the EU. The results show that there are significant differences between younger and older workers for most job characteristics and point to some factors that could determine the premature exit of older workers from the labour market.

Aging refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Up to 50 years of age human organism is capable of nearly perfect renewal.  Sencescence of an organism is characterized by the declining ability to respond to stress, homeostatic mechanisms are less flexible, risk of diseases is increased. Senescence changes are detected on molecular, cellular, organ level and in the whole organism. Many theories would like to explain the process of aging: evolutional (natural selection), molecular (limited number of repair factors), cellular (genetic program of senescence, shortening of telomeres, cell damage caused by free radicals….) and systemic. This irreversible series of changes inevitably ends in death.

Our attitudes towards ageing employees are unjustified because we tend to focus on the deterioration of physical resources, even though competencies and experience are most essentially needed in modern work life. Finland has undertaken various activities to tackle the problems related to ageing of the labour force. Finnish National Programme on Ageing workers is a good example of a large scale initiative. The major challenges are to increase knowledge in work and age issues, improve age related attitudes and enhance the abilities to create new age practices in the work places. Well-organised work, which takes into count the age-related changes, is the path to the combination of productivity and wellbeing.

Risk Assessment and activities of the labour inspectorate – Austrian experience

Dr Elsbeth Huber, Ministry of Economics and Labour, Labour Inspectorate

The employment rate for older workers (55–64 years) has increased significantly in Austria in the last two years. It rose from 31.9% in 2005 to 35.5% (+3.7 points) in 2006, and the forecast for 2007 is around 39% (EU average 43.5%, Lisbon objective 50%).

HOWEVER: further training and promotion opportunities still end at the age of 45, and working conditions, e.g. the rapid pace of work, work organisation, working hours and the design of the work environment, are still geared to younger people.

The underlying concept is the “performance sprint” model, i.e. people work beyond their own limits up to the age of 50, then head towards a well-deserved retirement as quickly as possible, or get recognised as a "problem case" on the job market. This is very clear in, for example, the construction industry.

What can the labour inspectorate do?

It can

• sensitise, awake interest and create awareness
• advise and monitor (risk assessment)
• provide tools which allow firms to recognise developments in good time and make it clear that

Ø      the strengths of 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 – 60 – 65-year-olds in the firm are recognised

Ø      the weaknesses of 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 – 60 – 65-year-olds are compensated for

• cooperate with other organisations.

Legal basis

Since 2001 the ArbeitnehmerInnenschutzgesetz (Workers’ Health and Safety Act) has made it compulsory, in identifying and assessing risks and adopting measures, to take account of workers’ suitability in terms of their health and fitness, physical strength, age and skills.

However, age distribution is not the same in every establishment or region (town/province). It varies both between individual sectors and regionally. It is therefore important for projects or campaigns to take account of these differences from the point of view of target groups.

The Labour Inspectorate’s project 2007–2008

In 2007 the Labour Inspectorate first of all organised internal training in cooperation with an external expert on the subject (a total of 44 participants), and a start was made on implementing the advice and monitoring campaign.

The first phase of the campaign started in October 2007. The status quo will be examined at 300 establishments (including 15 construction sites) with different sizes and structures. Workers will be advised in relation to the demographic trend at the establishment, focusing particularly on their awareness of establishments’ obligation to take account of age when carrying out evaluations (risk assessment and identification of measures). All sectors and establishments with fewer than 10, between 10 and 50 and more than 50 employees and establishments with a high proportion of women or a high proportion of men will be covered (total of approximately 300 establishments).

Objectives: strengthen motivation — develop skills and competences — safeguard health

In order to provide on-the-spot support for labour inspectors and establishments, we have developed our own tool for performing age structure analysis and identifying age-oriented implementing measures. This will also be made available to establishments.

A folder containing support material for the campaign is also being distributed. This too is available on the Labour Inspectorate’s website to anyone interested, together with other information: (www.arbeitsinspektion.gv.at/AI/Gesundheit/Allgemeines/altersgerechte_arbeitswelt.htm).

The questionnaires will be evaluated in mid-2008. Once the results are available, the contents of the next phase in 2008 will be decided.

Measures at establishments will be organised according to four action areas (Finnish model): personal health, management/work organisation, skills development and work environment.

1. analysis of age structure, in all parts of the establishment, women and men
2. adaptation of workplace environment, e.g. temperature 24°C instead of 20°C; lighting: 50% more for age group 40–55, 100% more for age group >55; lifting aids and reduction of awkward postures
3. no age limits for internal careers or further training, age-oriented teaching, valuation of workers
4. new working time models, e.g. hospitals: change from 12-hour to 8-hour shifts, + less overtime; plastics establishment: shorter working week and shift blocks, longer periods without shifts, abolition of “top-up shifts”, six instead of eight night shifts per month, plus health weeks with advice, hot meals during shifts, and ergonomic measures
5. mixed teams of young and old

The inclusion of ergonomics in the system of safety and health at work at Revoz ensures that all players who have any influence whatsoever on changes in the work process, the design of new products or new workplaces are actively involved and comply with ergonomic recommendations. The increase in the number of workplaces with suitable ergonomic working conditions and appropriate work organisation made it possible to increase the employment of older workers, women and people with limited capacity to work. The presentation shows the effect that the greater attention to ergonomics has had on the health and employability of workers and gives the practical example of a workplace adapted to older workers.

Older people and reduction in capacity to work

The greater length of life and working life, changes in values in society and the ever higher level of education, including among older people, mean that the working population will include more and more older people, with their specific limitations and needs and their many advantages, which need to be taken into account and built on. We employers and doctors who are involved in assessing capacity to work, and particularly specialists in occupational medicine, transport and sport, must be prepared to accept this unavoidable fact. We must ensure that people who are healthy and capable of working and wish to continue working even though they meet the conditions for retirement have a safe and stimulating working environment in which they can still make an enormous contribution to humanity by exploiting their potential for work.

Under the Lisbon strategy, the labour participation of the population is to be increased, partly by extending the length of working life. The aim will be achieved if we succeed in preserving workers' health and capacity to work throughout their working lives.

The fourth study on employment relationships carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in Dublin (www.eurofound.eu.int) in 2005 showed that far more workers report work-related musculo-skeletal diseases than occupational injuries. Nevertheless, the network of trade union experts on health and safety at work under the health and safety department of the European Trade Union Institute ETUI-REHS (http://hesa.etui-rehs.org/uk/) has ascertained that certain European and national health and safety at work strategies continue to pay more attention to preventing occupational injuries than to long-term damage to health.

The latter includes, above all, musculo-skeletal diseases, since by far the highest percentage of European workers surveyed in 2005 reported such diseases. A clear causal link has been established between working loads that cause musculo-skeletal diseases and the conviction of workers that they will be incapable of doing their work after they reach the age of 60. European trade unions also warn of the powerful lobbies that hamper the introduction of effective protection of workers against dangerous substances.

Labour inspection is a key part of the system of safety and health at work, which is why labour inspectorates should be granted more resources and staff in order to perform their tasks and should be given the power to enforce regulations effectively. They should insist, among other things, that risk assessments specify measures for preventing musculo-skeletal and other work-related diseases, as a matter of priority. They should give labour representatives for health and safety at work a role in their procedures.