CESI welcomes EU moves towards a Global Health Strategy and a recognition of Covid as an occupational disease

The new Recommendation as well as the Strategy help respond to many of CESI’s health- and care-related demands and claims made since the start of the Covid pandemic.

The Recommendation encourages Member States to recognise, as their national competence, Covid-19 as an occupational disease if contracted by workers in disease prevention,in health and social care, in domiciliary assistance, or (during a pandemic) in other sectors where there is an outbreak and where a risk of infection has been proven.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “I am sure that following the lessons learnt during the pandemic, Member States will swiftly proceed to recognising Covid-19 as an occupational disease. This is especially needed for the healthcare workforce, which is a vital force in our societies and has been especially suffering from and affected by long Covid. These workers need to be given adequate health and safety at work conditions.”

The European Commission’s newly proposed EU Global Health Strategy acknowledges health as a common global good and seeks to position the EU as a global leader in the fields of health and care. It takes stock of the vulnerabilities showcased by the pandemic, sets out a readiness plan for tackling additional health threats in pandemics, and also adresses persisiting inequalities in healthcare. It adopts a ‘health-in-all-policies’ approach and it places the workforce at the forefront. Setting out a ‘one-health-approach’, the strategy is innovative and ambitious by proposing three targets for tackling global health challenges: better health and well-being of people across the life course, strengthened health systems and advanced universal health coverage, and mitigated health threats including through pandemics.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger commented: “CESI is committed to supporting the EU in delivering the European Health Union, the EU Global Strategy and its related recommendations that seek better working conditions for the healthcare workforce, reduce understaffing, and aim at higher pay, sectoral investments and professional valorisation of the personnel.”