Arduous Work in the European Union
Key findings of a multi-sectoral1 European Trade Union project
Reached on the basis of European multidisciplinary research2
1. Arduous work still exists in all sectors of European economies and has a substantial
negative impact on the physical and/or mental health of numerous workers. Therefore
Europe needs a policy mix of various solutions for workers exposed to arduous working
conditions. The starting point for those policies is to recognise that providing a decent lifequality in good health up to a high age for all people is one of the aims of a social Europe
and a sign of social progress.
2. Prevention of arduous working conditions (occupational health and safety policies) as first
step
It should be an immediate policy priority to start work on developing a genuine preventive
policy and to implement immediately practical preventive actions so as not to further
expose workers to arduous working conditions where it could be possible to avoid it. In this
connection, obligatory collective and individual risk analyses/assessments of workers’
workplaces and working conditions are necessary, including the mandatory required checks
and other obligatory tracking measures. In the event of a clear refusal, immediate,
compelling, stringent and dissuasive sanctions and protective measures must be imposed to
protect the worker’s integrity.
The role of labour inspectorates is very important in this context. Labour inspectorates in
virtually all countries do often have too much workload to be fully aware of the arduous
nature of a workplace and it´s long term consequences for the workers. As prevention is the
key condition to reduce arduous occupations, all inspectors (labour, social and OSH) must
be granted adequate resources in terms of staff, training and competences to detect and
adequately (re)act when workers are employed under arduous conditions.
3. Education and Training to facilitate ways out of arduous occupations
If working under arduous working conditions cannot be avoided completely, workers have
to get the possibility to change their jobs if they do not want or are not able to continue with
their work. Therefore they have to be entitled to more and better training and education
possibilities to improve their chances to get another work.
1
Funded by the European Commission: Better Understanding of Arduous Occupations within the European Pension Debate“
(VP/2013/002/0095)
2
Processing line workers in the meat sector, bus drivers working in the public transport sector, distribution centre workers (like a
typical Amazon worker which combines commerce sector and logistics sector, (metal) foundry-workers, carpenters - floor
coverers, elder care workers 3 Italy, Belgium, France, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Poland, Spain and Romania.
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4. Compensation for occupational health damages
There are too many unseen victims of arduous working conditions throughout Europe.
Workers who had to accept another job for medical reasons, workers with work related
diseases which are not recognized as occupational diseases or workers with work incapacity
which is not recognised to be occupational. These workers have to be entitled to adequate
compensation and adequate compensation policies have to be developed.
5. Retirement solutions for workers exposed to arduous working conditions
European policies pushing for a uniformly prolonged working career has proved to be not
appropriate and must be modified. This kind of blind policies takes no account the reality of
workers working under arduous working conditions.
In some workplaces arduous conditions are hardly avoidable due to external factors like such
as design of machines and materials (in the industrial sectors), the lack of cooperation by
others (care sector) or a traffic jam (transport sector). Workers working under such
conditions will be affected by them, no matter which prevention measures will be given. For
those workers early retirement schemes must be made available with regard to 1st and 2nd
pension pillars. These schemes must be part of inclusive and socially responsible pension
policies in the EU and can also be negotiated by the representative social partners.
6. Regulate Arduous Working Time Arrangements
As the arduousness of a work is clearly linked to the applied working-time arrangement - in
particular (non-)regulation of overtime, flexible working time, shift work, night work, on-call
arrangements, … - , it is of utmost importance that any working time arrangements must
aim to avoid additional stress for the workers and to enable workers to have a healthy worklife-balance. Thus any working time legislation or arrangement must take into account the
probable arduous nature of the arrangement on the individual worker and set-up preventive
and compensation measures.
7. Guarantee protection for out-sourced arduous jobs
In many cases arduous work is out-sourced and performed by workers belonging to subcontractors or bogus self-employed. That means the work is performed by workers with
lower access to stringent preventive control measures, lower social protection and lower
wages. In this relation a special focus must be placed on the situation of cross-border
workers, especially workers from Eastern European countries who work in Western
European countries, who are subject to arduous work but officially do not have access to
help because of their situation (non-declared work) or out of fear of being fired.
8. More resources for comprehensive strategies to diminish the negative effects of arduous
occupations
Better knowledge about the negative effects and strategies how to prevent and adequately
compensate is necessary. Physical and mental integrity are guaranteed human rights. These
have to be guaranteed by state authorities by any means. Trade unions will not accept that
those rights might lose their validity at the working sphere and continue to put the issue on
the agenda.
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