Towards a greener labour market: occupational health and safety implications

Abstract

Background. Climate change and environmental degradation are seriously jeopardizing the future environmental and economic sustainability at the global level prompting urgent calls for a shift towards more sustainable development and greener economies. The use of the so called green jobs is a key strategy to overcome economic and ecological crisis. Aim. The present study discusses the implications for employment and decent work of green jobs in order to identify information/training measures to enhance skills of employees protecting their working conditions. Results. Despite all the emphasis laid today on the green economy, occupational health and safety (OHS) issues have still been talked only limited, as already noted in previous studies and literature reviews. Conclusion. It is needed to assess traditional and new OHS risks within green jobs in order to facilitate the transfer of OHS knowledge to green technologies as well as identifying OHS training needs.