EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS: EU AGENCY SENDS OUT NEW WARNING ON HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK.

• Position: Brief article

"The nature and organisation of work are changing, becoming more client- and knowledge-based", Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, the Agency's Director explains. Europe's workforce has also been changing; it is ageing, less male-dominated, more precarious and more difficult to monitor, as it has spread out into small companies. As a consequence, "health issues have become more complex and we need to find new ways to approach occupational safety and health research and prevention".

For instance, workers' difficulty in achieving a balance between working and non-working time has been a growing concern. The problem is also affected by what has been termed 'atypical work': temporary agency work, part-time work or jobs with 'unsocial hours'. The report also mentions the need for more research into preventing psychological violence at work, i.e. all types of harassment or mobbing. The European Commission has recently highlighted the...