Foresight of new and emerging occupational safety and health risks associated with information and communications technologies and work locations by 2025

Introduction

The foresight produces a set of scenarios to 2025 to consider the potential impacts that developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and changes in work location (including the development of the EU Digital Single Market) may have on workers’ safety and health. The aim of the project is to inform EU decision makers, Member States’ Governments, trade unions and employers, so that they can take decisions to shape the future of occupational safety and health (OSH) towards safer and healthier workplaces.

Methodology

The work has been carried out in three distinct phases:

• Work package 1 involved the identification of key contextual drivers of change that could contribute to creating new and emerging risks associated with ICT and changes in work location. This was achieved by horizon scanning, followed by a consultation exercise involving structured interviews and a web survey with a range of experts and key thinkers.
• Work package 2 developed the scenarios. The first step consisted in developing a set of ‘base scenarios’ describing possible and plausible visions of the world of work in 2030 shaped by the key drivers of change from work package 1. This was followed by a multidisciplinary workshop involving a representative cross section of participants, including ICT and OSH experts, to explore the future OSH challenges and opportunities associated with ICT and workplace location in each scenario. In a further workshop with policy-makers the resulting scenarios was tested and refined with regard to their use for the development of strategy options addressing the future OSH challenges identified.
• Work package 3 comprises of a series of workshops across Europe to promote the project findings as well as the use of the scenarios as a tool to address the future OSH challenges associated with developments in ICT and work location.