Measures that help people extend their working years and maintain their work ability have risen to the fore in the social welfare and health policies of many European countries. Improving the quality of work life, prolonging work careers, and promoting health at work are all preconditions for achieving a sustainable, stable and productive society, thus furthering the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy.

Prolonging careers and health promotion at workplaces were among the themes discussed at the Informal Ministerial Meeting on Employment, Social Policy and Health during Finland’s EU Presidency in July 2006. The meeting also discussed more generally how to meet the challenges posed by globalisation and ageing, and what measures Member States and the EU should take to develop work life.

To provide background material for the ministerial meeting, the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health launched a joint project in 2005, “Health in the World of Work – Prolonging Healthy Working Years”. The goal of the project was to draw up an expert recommendation concerning the extension of working years and the promotion of occupational health. The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion participated in the project as a cooperation partner. The project was supported by the WHO, the ILO, the relevant Directorates-General of the European Commission, and the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work under the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Financial support was received from the European Commission’s public health programme, from the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and from the Finnish Work Environment Fund.

The central principle in the recommendation is that efforts to develop working conditions and the role of well-being at work should be given a more prominent status as factors improving competitiveness in a sustainable manner. This applies to enterprises and other organisations as well as to the economy on the whole. Measures that improve the quality of work and well-being at work affect the productivity of organisations and the motivation and health of personnel quickly and efficiently. The recommendation stresses that goals pertaining to labour protection, occupational health and well-being at work should also be taken into account in policies other than those directly concerned with labour protection and occupational health. In addition, more efficient cooperation is needed between sectors. It is important to assess the effects that measures implemented in various policy sectors have on health, employability, working conditions and on the quality of work life, and to select the solutions that have the optimum effects in this respect.

The recommendation also underlines the importance of good management and emphasises an operating model where Member States, in cooperation with interest groups, draw up national or regional programmes in order to increase the appeal of work and work life and to prolong careers.

The recommendation is divided into four areas: workers’ health in all policies; a healthy enterprise; making services accessible to all; and innovations needed to achieve better work life.