On monotony and grunt work: report on health and safety at work

More and more people are employed in so-called helper occupations: Their number rose from 4.3 million in 2014 to 5.2 million in 2019, according to the latest figures from the Federal Employment Agency. According to the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), employees in so-called elementary work are more likely to struggle with monotony at work than employees in skilled and highly skilled work. According to the BAuA, more than 60 percent of basic workers reported constantly repetitive work processes. This was the result of an analysis of the 2018 BIBB/BAuA employee survey, which was published in the current report “Safety and Health at Work Reporting Year 2020” (SuGA).

The BAuA defines basic work, simple work or helper work as activities in which employees are only instructed on site and no vocational training is required. In addition to monotony, the respondents in elementary work increasingly reported musculoskeletal complaints. Around 45 percent of those in elementary jobs stated that they had three or more musculoskeletal complaints. In contrast, only one in five people in highly skilled work reported this (19.9 percent).

The Federal Cabinet has adopted the Federal Government’s report on the state of occupational safety and health and on the incidence of accidents and occupational diseases in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2020. The report presents the individual activities of the occupational safety and health authorities and the accident insurance institutions in dealing with the pandemic.