Sustainable work

An international workshop on the topic of "Sustainable Work" took place at the Schwerin campus of the University of Applied Labour Studies (HdBA) on 7th and 8th November. It was organised by the professors Sebastian Brandl and Ingo Matuschek and aimed to provide a cross-border context to the findings of the Sustainable Work working group of the German Committee Future Earth (DKN), funded by the German Research Organisation (DFG) in recent years.

Sustainable work means creating life and working conditions that support people in remaining committed to their jobs in their extended working life. The working world has to be redesigned so as to remove factors that hinder or put off employees. However, personal circumstances must also be taken into account. The challenge is to bring the individual needs and abilities in line with the quality of the working environment that they have, also considering environmental factors.

Academics and other players from six European countries as well as from Chile gleaned national debates and regional characteristics respectively and noted that the concept of "sustainable work" is treated very differently in the academic and public discourses of the individual countries of origin.
Unlike in Germany – where the debate is relatively widespread, albeit not undisputed – in countries as diverse as Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic or Spain, the debate ranks well behind other labour-market issues such as social security, reducing unemployment, maintaining industrial centres and the decline and ageing of the working population. Also in Sweden, the debate is not unhindered - with the exception of preserving the ozone layer and protecting against radiation, the country seems far from achieving all sixteen of the environment targets agreed upon in 1999, and despite its efforts has by no means embarked on a clear course towards linking work and sustainability (environment).

Debates on sustainable work seem to (be able to) move at different paces. This points to a further coordination issue within the European Union which the participants of the workshop intend to continue exploring in the future, together with academics and other players. As a first step towards making this a permanent feature, a proposal to support networking at European level is planned. In the future, representatives of European employment services are to become involved.