European levels of employability to be established

A European conference which aims to establish a health, safety message which makes workers more employable is taking place next month in Bilbao. It hopes to focus on the impact of health and safety on the employability of workers at a European level.

Initiated by the Finnish Presidency and a debate about the employability of ageing workers in Finland, the conference looks to explore issues of the affects health and safety have on the workplace, develop a common understanding of the issues involved and identify how to approach and develop activities at a national and European level.

Occupational health and safety, according to the Health and Safety Executives, is strongly linked to the employability of a worker and the development of a companies employment strategy. The promotion of the well-being of workers, comment the HSE, leads to increased employment capacity and employability as a healthy, productive and employable workforce means a reduced risk of exclusion from the labour market and improved competitiveness.

The conference also seeks to explore positive measures of increasing the employability of workers most at risk of exclusion such as older workers and the physically impaired through redesigning the workplace and creating new forms of work organisation.

Hosted jointly by the Finnish Presidency of the European Union and the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, the conference will be held at the Euskalduna Conference Centre, Bilbao, Spain from 27-29 September 1999.

Julie Crisp