Documents

This report highlights the importance of promoting employee health – in the interests of individuals as well as the wider economy and society. Organisations have real opportunities to share responsibilities with their employees to create a healthy workplace. Above all, good health benefits the employee. The advantages to organisations include higher productivity, better performance and reduced absenteeism. Healthier employees continue working for longer, allowing society to cope more effectively with an ageing population and long-term labour shortages. The Social and Economic Council has observed that commpanies are already developing a range of employee healthcare policies, for example in areas such as health & safety, absenteeism management, and employee lifestyle choices. The report notes that additional legislation is unnecessary at this point but that existing policies need to be implemented and good practice shared.

The advisory report Nanoparticles in the Workplace: Health and Safety Precautions is the response of the Working Conditions Committee of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) to the request for advice sent to the Council by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) on 5 September 2008. That request for advice concerns how to deal with the uncertainties related to the risks associated with nanotechnology, in particular with persistent synthetic nanoparticles, in an occupational environment. The Committee's central concern is with the health and safety of employees who are required to work with nanoparticles in the workplace. It is the employer that bears primary responsibility for this in the light of its duty of care as set forth in the Working Conditions Act. The basic principle is that substances attended by uncertain or unknown risks - which includes nanoparticles - should be treated as hazardous (or extremely hazardous) substances. This means that the policy and implementation measures in such cases should focus on preventing or minimising exposure of employees to those substances.

The National Economic & Social Council (NESC) calls for an integrated national response to the current crisis. Such a response, the Council argues, must be widely understood, command support and, most importantly engage the ability and energy of the Irish people.The Council's analysis suggests that Ireland faces not one but five closely-related crises: a banking crisis; a fiscal crisis; an economic crisis of competitiveness and job losses; a social crisis of unemployment, income loss and indebtedness; and a reputational crisis.

Education in Spain should be considered a state matter based on a wide-ranging political and social consensus, and although considerable progress has been made in the last decade some serious quality problems remain. In its proposal the ESC puts forward a number of needs: to strengthen Compulsory Secondary Education (up to 16 years of age), a higher level of investment, increase the quality of teaching, better coordination among the different Administrations, stronger links between universities and companies, and more support for educational establishments that are supported with public funds, although their quality does not depend on whether they are public or private.The report makes a detailed analysis of the Spanish education system and points out its major quality problems, among them a high school drop-out rate: 30pc of youngsters leave school early against 15% in the EU-27, sometimes even without a school leaving certificate.In its recommendations the Council advocates adequate and sustained financial support and calls for maximum co-operation by the education authorities if the measures against the drop-out rate are to be successful. The study points out that the investment made in education in Spain (4.2pc of GDP) is still below the averages for OECD countries (5.4pc) and EU-19 (5.3pc),The study by the ESC shows that the quality of Spanish educational establishments does not depend on whether they are publicly or privately owned. However, it is clear that institutions in charge of education should provide stronger support for centres supported with public funds, particularly those in less favoured social environments because these are more affected by the early drop-out syndrome.As regards vocational training for employment, the ESC underscores that a lifelong training strategy is a key element. Indeed, the reinforcement and development of collective bargaining in this area takes on particular importance as a way of realising the potential of this type of training.Also regarding vocational training, the ESC considers that the participation of workers and companies in training activities is insufficient. Only 7.7pc of employees take part in ongoing training programmes. Efforts should also be stepped up to train unemployed persons, given that the funding dedicated to this area in Spain continues to be considerably below the EU average; the coverage rate achieved is also insufficient.The report also reflects concern about the situation of universities. At present, Spanish universities play a minor role in terms of the country’s economic, social and territorial organisation. According to the ESC, Spanish companies – which also have lower levels of innovation in comparison with other similar countries – collaborate very little with universities in the field of innovation. Therefore, one of the factors most commonly associated with poor social insertion and career prospects is a low level of qualifications. For example, most of the unemployment (70pc in 2007) was in workers who only have basic skills and lack specialisation; their rates of unemployment are above average.All these factors allow us to state, in addition to the many details provided in the study, the people with a lower level of education have a higher chance of finding themselves unemployed.