On 8 March, the competent institution AES recorded 4,921 reports of work-related Covid-19. These are cases concerning the disease itself, but also allergies resulting from the use of protective equipment for example.

In Austria, employers and doctors must report any suspicion of an occupational disease. More than eight out of ten mesotheliomas are related to exposure to asbestos, which is mainly of occupational origin. They should therefore be reported to AUVA, the competent accident insurance body. However, the AUVA does not recognise relatively few mesotheliomas.

According to the provisional data it has just published, INAIL recorded 554,340 accidents at work in 2020, a drop of 13.6% compared to 2019. On the other hand, the number of deaths rose by 16.6%.

Category 1 and 2 masks are replaced by “general public masks with filtration greater than 90%”. The French Ministries of Health, Economy and Labour updated at the end of January 2021 the information note on masks for non-sanitary use published in March 2020. As a result, category 2 masks can no longer be used to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic as of 28 January 2021.

The provincial directorate of the National Social Security Institute (INSS) of Vizcaya recognised as an occupational injury “several periods of absence due to anxiety” of an employee in charge of the management of two Eroski City supermarkets in Muskiz.

As part of the public consultation launched by the European Commission on the future Strategic Framework on occupational Health and Safety (OSH) for 2021-2027, the French social partners within COCT unanimously adopted an opinion on 15 January.

According to provisional data, eleven people lost their lives at work in Finland last year. This is the lowest number of deaths at work ever recorded in a calendar year. Of the eleven victims, all were men, including ten employees and one entrepreneur. Six were in the construction sector.

“Working at home is no less important than working in a company or office”, explained Franco Bettoni, President of the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work (INAIL). To underline the importance of preventing domestic accidents and the social value of compulsory insurance, Franco Bettoni recalled that since a 1999 law, amended in 2018, the Institute insures those who deal with housing in a habitual, exclusive and free way and who are between 18 and 67 years old.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the main cause of absence from work in Belgium. To help companies prevent them in the long term, the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (SPF Employment) offers 3 easily accessible animated films

Fedris, the Federal Agency for Occupational Risks, has extended its pilot project on the prevention of burn-out to the care sector. It launched it in January 2019 for the banking and hospital sectors. The aim is to provide support for people who are suffering at work, who have taken a large number of short work stoppages or who have been off work for less than two months in order to enable them to remain at work or return to work quickly.