1. CASE STUDY Nº 1: Health at the workplace. Road transport
Sector
Developed by: XXI Inveslan S.L.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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2. INTRODUCTION
Due to its own nature, the road transport sector is one of the most competitive sector within all national economies.
This competitiveness leads to a potential conflict of interest between workplace health promotion and the
commercial pressures faced by companies. In addition, the current economic crisis is increasing this conflict making
larger the distance among these two aspects.
However, some transport companies are being recognizing that effective workplace health promotion may not only
prevent health problems, but also lead to significant savings: i.e reducing absenteeism.
This case study is based on the Report E-Fact 47: Health promotion in the transport sector developed by the European
Agency for Safety and Health at work.
The case wants to give a good example of implementation of a health promotion programme through identifying and
managing the work-related stress by a road transport company within the road transport sector.
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3. DESCRIPTION part 1
ATM Transport company. Italy. http://www.atm-mi.it
ATM implements the public transport services in Milan and 72 other towns. The organisation employs more than
8,700 workers at 28 different sites. The company recognises that all employees, whether drivers or office workers, and
whether they work regular hours or shifts, need to have a good work-life balance.
For this reason ATM created a special unit (DRU-S) within its human resources department, composed of a manager
and two experts: a psychologist and a nutritionist who give counseling sessions with practical advice and guidance on
healthy diet, physical exercise and work-related stress management.
Since 2005, this unit has promoted workers’ health and wellbeing through a number of integrated communication
initiatives developed in conjunction with public safety institutions. An example is an in-house journal that is posted to
all employees’ homes and contains clear and interesting information on diet and healthy lifestyles.
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4. DESCRIPTION part 2
ATM Transport company. Italy. http://www.atm-mi.it
ATM’s social system is based principally on research into the needs of the company’s workers and on the
qualitative/quantitative analysis of hazardous events that occur at the workplace. These events are documented in a
monthly internal report that also describes the measures put in place to correct problems, as well as reports on
emerging health and safety trends. In the operative area ATM develops stories of each worker, which are relayed to
the ATM human resources management operative unit. ATM puts in place actions aimed at empowering the workers
and creating mutual responsability between the company and the individual employees.
One example is the training courses organised by the company and targeted at newly recruited drivers and general
workers. The courses cover topics such as healthy diet; chronic diseases and risk factors prevention; and healthy
lifestyles with a special focus on work life-balance.
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5. WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM THIS CASE STUDY?
If you are a worker in the road transport sector (driver, administrative staff, warehouse and maintenance
employees etc)…
• From this case study you can learn that your own life style can affect significantly your working conditions.
• You need to make an effort on your part and think about how you can improve your own life style in order to
have a better working individual conditions! Sleep more hours, have a balanced diet, do exercise…
• Big small efforts you can achieve big changes!
If you are a manager of a road transport company…..
• From this case you will learn that it is necessary to all people, your employees, whether drivers or office
workers, need to have a good work-life balance.
• The workplace health promotion needs to be taken into account. Suitable prevention actions will led always
to positive responses like savings and cost reduction!
• Both employees and employers need to have an active role in the promotion of health at work . The best
thing that companies can do is to involve their employees in this process producing feelings of mutual
responsibility and alienation.
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6. FINAL COMMENTS
This case study represents one example from the examples that can be found related to the promotion of health at
work and road transport sector.
It can be transferred to other sectors and can be a good experience and inspiration for other companies.
Surfing on Internet, you can find more good examples and practices. Why you don’t do that! We recommend you to
visit the website of the European Agency for Safety and Work: http://osha.europa.eu to find more!
And if you want to know more case studies linked to the world of work related stress, its
causes, effects, assessment, management and prevention go to the other case studies of this training tool!!
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