Belgium

At the end of 2002 there were 20 EurErgs recognised in Belgium and Luxembourg. Most of them are working in external services for prevention and protection at work. Other are working for companies or universities. In recent years there is a stabilisation of the number of EurErgs.

The question has risen why there are no more ergonomists interested in the title. It may be that most companies do not know that there are registered ergonomists. Multinational companies are more interested in EurErgs since they are working with health and safety networks.

Since the ergonomics work of the external services has increased, more ergonomists are involved. This may result in more EurErgs. It may be necessary to provide more information for possible candidates and promote the title for them.

Other people working in ergonomic fields (e.g. software design) seem to be not interested in the title, possibly because they are using the quality label of a university or a famous organisation. This limits the value of the title.

The information channels of the Belgian Ergonomics Society (newsletter and website) can be used to promote the title of Eur.Erg and motivate people to apply. Also the society website ( www.baree.be ) is an important information channel.

back to top

France

ARTEE wishes to promote the Eur.Erg. title to young graduated students. It proposes to analyse the training of young ergonomists in relation to the HETPEP criteria. After that, young ergonomists will have to get 3 years experience before applying. ARTEE will give references to help the young ergonomists to find a job for example. A message will be send to the mailing lists of SELF, student associations and professional associations to inform the ergonomists about this.

Some communication activities are planned :

• At the 6th “Health and safety at Work” in Nantes , June 18/19, SELF and ARTEE will both be present.

• For the first time, SELF and ARTEE will edit some documentation about the Eur. Erg. Title and the management rules of SELF and ARTEE. This document will be distributed at the next SELF Congress in Paris

• Happy Birthday CREE. For ARTEE, it will be an event which will be widely advertised

The 2nd meeting of French Eur.Ergs.has been postponed to November 4. The theme will be : “Passing from the diploma to professional activity”.

• In the morning, 3 or 4 young ergonomists will describe their first steps with or without tutoring.

• In the afternoon, presentations will be given on the themes;“What are you expecting from the Eur.Erg title when you are young ergonomist ?” and “Consequences of the Eur.Erg Title in professional activities ?”

back to top

Germany

For decades, the Spring Conference of the Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft (GfA) has been an important yearly forum where work scientists and ergonomists from German, Austrian, and Swiss research institutes and universities meet to exchange experiences and ideas on current issues and problems of ergonomics and work science. The year 2003 marks a half century since the founding of the GfA, the second-oldest ergonomic society in Europe after the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain. To celebrate this anniversary, the GfA and ISOES decided to host a Joint International Conference in Munich ( May 07 – 09, 2003) with plans for the founding of the “Federation of European Ergonomics Societies” (FEES). The bilingual (German, English) Conference attracted about 350 participants from all over the world. The Conference Proceedings entitled “Quality of Work and Products in Enterprises of the Future – Qualität von Arbeit und Produkt in Unternehmen der Zukunft” (edited by STRASSER, H.; KLUTH, K.; RAUSCH, H. and H. BUBB) have been published by Ergonomia Verlag in Stuttgart ISBN 3-935089-68-6.

A new Board of the GfA was elected during the General Assembly of the Ergonomics Society of the German Language Speaking Countries in May 2003 :

• Prof. Ekkehart Frieling (President)

• Prof. Holger Luczak (President Elect)

• Prof. Kurt Landau (Past President)

Despite the fact that Prof. Strasser will continue to act as the CREE Council Member

Detailed information about activities of the GfA and its main institutions can be obtained by contacting the Website " www.GfA-online.de" . For example, information is available about addresses, teaching and research activities, a modular course program in ergonomics via selecting "Lehre und Weiterbildung", "Lehrkataster Arbeitswissenschaft", "GfA-Akademie" etc. (in German) or www.iea.cc/directory (in English) current program list/Germany.

back to top

Great Britain

The Ergonomics Society is still pursuing the necessary discussions towards getting a royal charter. We are getting a high level of support from government departments.

The history of the Ergonomics Society is now complete and the draft has been sent to the Editor of Ergonomics to see if he will publish it (or a shorter version). It will probably also go in full on the Society's web site.

Moving towards making evidence of CPD necessary for continued registration.

Starting to plan for the autumn meeting of CREE to be held in the UK , probably Birmingham in the autumn of 2004. In the mean time we are planning for the CREE President to meet with the Professional Affairs Board – probably in November this year.

back to top

Greece

The Hellenic Ergonomics Society's activities were rather scarce during the last six months. The main problem faced is that since there is a very small number of practicing ergonomists in the country, the members' interest in participating in activities is low. Up to now HES was strict in membership criteria, requiring a strong ergonomics education. This has resulted in a small member base comprising people with a background in ergonomics but that did not in general practice in the field. To overcome this mismatch, there have been talks inside the council to change our policy regarding membership, to allow people who do not necessarily have a strong academic background in ergonomics but who are doing relative work to become members of the society. As for Eur.Ergs, things do not look good either. There are currently only two registered in CREE out of four, one year before. The reasons are twofold; first and foremost the market has not yet accepted ergonomic knowledge as such to be an independent and necessary discipline in industry and second; there is no specific course in Greece resulting in an ergonomics diploma. There is some intermittent demand in the fields of software usability evaluation and office furniture design, but much marketing and publicity effort is needed to arrive at the standard of demand of other European countries.

The scheduled hosting of the CREE meeting in Athens in November 2002 may serve towards this direction.

back to top

Ireland

The main item of news to report is that Dr Tim Gallwey has stepped aside as Ireland 's representative on CREE. The new representative is Robert Saunders.

 

Nationally, the Irish Ergonomic Society (IES) is discovering how rapid economic progress plays havoc with voluntary positions and committee-based work. There has also been an election of a new Committee to the IES, with Steve Chan ( National College of Art & Design – Dublin ) replacing Enda Fallon (National University of Ireland – Galway ) at the chair.

 

At the moment, the primary projects that the IES is working on are: (a) a working group on Ergonomics in Schools; (b) a working group on Manual Handling in Industry; and (c) re-establishing the quarterly/bi-annual newsletter. It had been hoped to have a joint Conference with the Occupational Safety & Health Institute of Ireland (OSHII) this summer on the subject of participatory ergonomics, but alas, that could not happen.

 

In 1989, when Ireland finally adopted the EU's Framework Directive on occupational health & safety, it was agreed that two, ‘parallel' bodies would be set up: (i) the Health & Safety Authority – the governmental, policing agency; and (ii) a research-based institute or organisation which would involve the universities, trade unions and other NGO's and professional bodies. After 13 years of negotiation and deliberation, the OSHII was set-up in the last 2 years, and had even managed to source some research funding, and an experienced Development Director. However, for reasons yet to be established, OSHII has been abandoned/dissolved, and it appears that there is no Institute nor will there be for some time to come. However, we have lots of questions to keep us busy until such time as we can sit back at the round table.

back to top

Italy

In 2001, a new SIE Directive Board was elected and started its work with the aim to enlarge the acknowledgment of ergonomics role in the Country. Its members are : Alessandra Re - President, Gabriella Caterina - Past President, Riccardo Tartaglia, Enrica Fubini, Sebastiano Bagnara, Lina Bonapace, Fausto Anniciello, Guglielmo Antonutto, Erminia Attaianese, Alfredo Bianchi, Paola Cenni, Gabriele Cortili, Francesco P. Di Benedetto, Enrico Gaia, Ivetta Ivaldi, Michele La Rosa, Alessandra Millevolte, Enrico Occhipinti, Aldo Reolon, Antonella Toffetti.

Sebastiano Bagnara has been elected as the new SIE representative to the IEA Council. At the moment, the SIE Directive Board is involved with the national web site further development, a debate with companies and enterprises about the economic role of ergonomics; the project of a paper or on line review; the education in ergonomics in Italy.

About national web site further development : the SIE domain registration has been completed, and the new web address is “www.societadiergonomia.it” ; a forum on ergonomics has been created and new sections of the site have been opened ; the CREE link will be enabled as soon as possible.

The debate with companies and enterprises concerns the economic role of ergonomics in company management, as well as in product and services concept and development. A national conference on “The Ergonomics Added Value for Companies” was held in Turin (October 10). Many national and worldwide companies (Siemens, Whirlpool, Telecom, etc.) presented some case studies related to the role of ergonomics in their production or R&D areas. At the end of that conference the SIE member's meeting was held.

About Education in Ergonomics: a Post Degree Master in Ergonomics has been instituted; first course is starting at Trieste University (psychology). This fact raised a debate about the ergonomist's professional profile in Italy, because it seems to be meant as a specialisation of a psychologist profile. At the present and in that framework, the HETPEP harmonized Master is still the only way to get the Eur.Erg certification.

Some SIE Directive Board members are involved in Ergonomics UNI TC for standards on everyday product usability. A national conference on Standards in Ergonomics was recently held in Milan.

back to top

Portugal

The activity of APERGO in the last six months was centred essentially in the organization of the 3rd Ergonomics Congress which took place on the 10th and 11th April in Lisbon, and was dedicated to the theme " Ergonomics in Production Systems". About 130 people participated in event, including ergonomists, students of ergonomics, occupational health professionals, engineers, and representatives of other areas such as design and management. This congress aimed at the diffusion of knowledge about Ergonomics as a science and as practice and resulted in an enlarged debate at a national and international level.

Besides the 28 oral communications, divided into 6 sessions dedicated to the themes of Methodology, Musculo-skeletal Lesions, Mental Workload, Ergonomic Design, and Ergonomics and Systems Safety, the congress also included three conferences with foreign personalities: Professor Jacques Malchaire of the University of Louvain (Belgium); Professor Kenneth Laughery of the University of Texas (USA); and Dr. Arnold Love, General Director of Ergonomics of the Visteon Corporation. Additionally there was a Workshop organized by the Portuguese Society of Occupational Medicine which was dedicated to the integrated approach to the prevention of musculo-skeletal lesions.

In the short term the further activities of Apergo will be centered on the annual general assembly, where the report and bills regarding the year 2002 will be discussed, and in elections which need to be accomplished before the end of the 1st semester of 2003. .

back to top

Netherlands

The Dutch Ergonomic Society celebrated its 40th year jubilee with a small symposium. Brainstorming sessions were held on several subjects related to the 2006 IEA congress:
- The congress theme.
- How to use modern electronic devices in organising the congress.
- Sponsoring.
- How to make connections between practitioners and researchers.

The Dutch Ergonomic Society, with the participation of several members of the society, edited the book "Ergonomie : Succesvolle Praktijkvoorbeelden" (Ergonomics: Successful Applications). In this publication there are 50 short success stories. (ISBN 90-6720-291-6)

The Dutch Ergonomic Society adopted Indonesia as part of a program to provide support to non-western countries. The first activity is an inventory of the connections already existing between Dutch and Indonesian universities.

The Dutch Ergonomic Society ' NvVE' sponsored an inventory of ergonomics education in the Netherlands, the resuls of which are presented on their Website.

The ReN proposed to the board of the SRe that they start a mentorship program for aspiring European Ergonomists. Members of the ReN will support, during several years, the professional training of young ergonomists after they finish their education.

back to top

Nordic Countries

As reported before, interest in certification is not overwhelmingly large in the Nordic countries although it is growing. Also the interest in ergonomics courses is growing at least in Sweden partly as a result of the increased popularity of the new masters programs on design in which ergonomics courses are an important part. It should be mentioned that in Sweden the occupational physiotherapists in companies often do not treat patients, but work with ergonomic problems in the workplaces. They are quite a large group and as a professional group they have decided to call themselves ergonomists although only a few of them fulfil the CREE requirements.

The interest in certification in Finland is growing and several discussions have been held with people from the Finnish Ergonomic Society. The forms that are used in Sweden , which are both in Swedish and English as yet available only in paper form, were sent to them, along with examples of its use. Two new applications and one prolongation have been sent in from the Finnish Ergonomic Society.

The annual Nordic Ergonomic Society Conference 2002 was held in Kolm å rden , Sweden , during October 1-3. The conference was considered successful, both from the researchers and practitionners point of view. The interest in the conferences has grown very much lately probably a result of the increase in quality that has occurred at the same time. The conferences attract people from many different countries and especially people from the Baltic states . To support this the language of the conference this year as well as last year was English. Next year conference will be held August 11-13 in Reykjavik and organized by the Icelandic Ergonomic Society.

A report of the CREE activities since last year including ergonomic status was given to the Board of the Nordic Ergonomic Society which had a board meeting just before the NES conference. The report was approved.

Apart from the conference a number of national meetings and seminars has been held in the different countries.

back to top

Spain

Francesc Balagué, the new Spanish representative confesses that he feels confused for being quite ignorant about CREE, but the CREE council members were very concerned about Spain being so absent from CREE discussions and ergonomics improvement in Europe for such a long time. They welcome their Spanish colleagues back.

back to top

Switzerland

The last six months can be regarded as a consolidation phase as recently implemented changes came into force or developed further. The new appointment in the chair of ergonomics at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich , is of great interest to the society members and will directly influence the recently established post-graduate Ergonomics Degree.

The society is continuing to grow with applications mainly being received from scientists and physiotherapy practitioners. To satisfy the educational needs of the latter group a course is now being offered, outside of the academic system, which provides 20 days of teaching and requires a project to be completed. Several Eur.Ergs have been involved in the conception and teaching of this course. The students of the course are aware that it does not enable them to fulfill the academic requirements of CREE.

Although there are still some members of the Society who could qualify as a Eur.Erg it is not expected that many new applicants will come from Switzerland until the students from the degree course (ETH / Uni. Lausanne) have completed their training and obtained the necessary experience. This will not be for at least 4 years.

The Annual General Meeting will be held in May and will be accompanied by a seminar on Workplace Health Promotion.

Further activities include the building up of links to associated societies both inland and abroad.

back to top