Prevention 4.0

German-English simultaneously

Organizer: German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV)

Driven by the megatrends of digitalization, globalization and demographic change, we are observing a change in the world of work on a far greater scale than any observed to date. New business models are emerging and displacing the established models in extremely short times. Competition requires companies and their workers to show increasing flexibility in how they work and to respond increasingly swiftly to customers‘ wishes. In production, human beings and robots, i.e. machines, will work side-by-side virtually on an equal footing. In the service sector, established working models proven over decades are now facing challenges from new, flexible models of work that supposedly satisfy private interests, such as reconciling family and working life, as well as offering economic benefits.
In national economies around the world, this development is seen as both an opportunity and a risk. Human factors experts, and in particular OSH experts, also see far more than just risks and drawbacks. Ultimately however, the question is whether such changing or new employment arrangements and forms of work give rise to new hazards that must in turn be faced by new prevention strategies. In Great Britain, the Foresight Centre at the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is observing how the world of work is changing and what consequences this has. The German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs launched a political discussion of the future world of work in 2015 with its green paper on „Work 4.0“, and recorded the resulting questions and conclusions in 2016 in its draft white paper with the same title. Other players, such as the German Social Accident Insurance Institutions with their position paper entitled „New Forms of Work – New Forms of Prevention“, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), industry associations, trade unions and research institutions, have examined the direction in which the world of work is developing, and how safe and healthy workplaces can be assured in the process.
The players are clearly unanimous in their view that a World of Work 4.0 necessitates Prevention 4.0. But what form should the latter take? Based upon the results of the discussion of Industry 4.0 and Work 4.0 conducted in general terms, it is now time to formulate priorities by which concrete recommen dations for action by companies can be drawn up. At this event, projects and project results are therefore to be presented that enable priorities to be set out for prevention topics.