45% of “NERs” (neither employed nor retired) aged 55 to 61 are there for health or disability reasons; 63% report suffering from a chronic or permanent illness or health problem. From the age of 62, this rate drops thanks to retirement.

These INSEE figures partly explain why, given the aging workforce “The proportion of people who are excluded from work at the end of their careers continues to increase (Castelain, 2023) »as ergonomist Catherine Delgoulet writes.

However, this development is not inevitable. The researcher shows this in an analysis of the connections between health and work as part of the scientific communication project “What do we know about work?” by Interdisciplinary laboratory for public policy assessment (Liepp), distributed in collaboration with Presses de Sciences Po on the Jobs channel from the website Lemonde.fr.

After a brief history of hard work and its recognition in labor law, Catherine Delgoulet points out in her text the professions and employment situations that are not taken into account by public health policies focused on reducing or compensating for the risks of hard work.

Caring for people over time

The aim is to radically change the approach to promoting health in the workplace beyond stress by building sustainability step by step over the course of a professional career. “When one looks at the relationship between health and work, and thus issues of prevention, through the unique prism of hardship, one takes into account in some way that work is inevitably painful, even harmful to health.”She explains.

The 45% of people who are neither working nor retired for health reasons are not expected to grow in number due to demographic aging. It is no longer about repairing, compensating or replacing human weaknesses that arise with age through robotization or outsourcing, but about questioning working conditions throughout life and the transmission of knowledge. caring for things and people over time. In other words, think about the work so that it is sustainable in all situations.

Transmission becomes a lever for prevention: “Know-how based on the experiences of each individual, based on registers of knowledge that articulate technology, professional values ​​or even health and safety issues for themselves, others, the technical system or the environment”justifies the ergonomist.

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