Abstract
In partnership with various ergonomics societies, the ETUI held on 26 and 27 June 2017 in Brussels a conference on how workers can contribute to the improvement of their working conditions.
Entitled “Workers and creativity: How to improve working conditions by participative methods”, the conference has brought together ergonomists, experts in occupational safety and health and workers and safety reps from across Europe, to discuss how workers’ first-hand experience can enrich professionals’ knowledge and lead to better prevention.
This approach originates from the observation that workers develop operational procedures that enable them to cope with unforeseeable factors that occur in the workplace. How creative are workers in rectifying risky work situations? Could the creativity of workers as experts on their own working conditions contribute to an improvement in prevention in general? In the context of the “digitalization of the economy”, can participatory ergonomics provide answers to changes in the quality of work and the employment status?, were some of the issues addressed by the participants.
The conference was jointly organised by the ETUI, the Federation of European Ergonomics Societies (FEES), the Belgian Ergonomics Society (BES) and the Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE).
Speakers' presentations:
Workers’ participation by Feedback method, Fabio Strambi, ETUI advisor on ergonomics and standardisation and Massimo Bartalini, Azienda USL Sud Est – Toscana