Europäische Perspektiven auf den Arbeits- und Gesundheitsschutz: Impulse für eine globaler orientierte Arbeitswissenschaft

In recent decades, the safety and health of workers in Europe has steadily improved, in no small part due to the implementation of the results of ergonomics research. However, European OSH systems are facing a number of challenges, which have been increasingly brought to the attention of policymakers and the public in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This article examines some of these central challenges to occupational safety and health from a European perspective. It is based on a position paper prepared by the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) together with other European OSH institutes from the research network PEROSH on the occasion of the EU Commission’s consultation process for a new European OSH strategy. The article not only highlights the European specifics of many challenges. Rather, it also understands these challenges as strategic fields of action for ergonomics, in order to demonstrate the potential of ergonomics in the development of joint European OSH solutions—as basis for the solution of problems caused by globalisation.