Youth Health and Safety Groups: Process Evaluation from an Intervention in Danish Supermarkets

Abstract

Young workers employed in temporary positions constitute a vast part of the employees in the Danish retail sector. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the implementation of an intervention to establish H&S groups for young workers in Danish supermarkets. The intervention aimed to include and involve the young workers in the management of their work environment and work conditions, and simultaneously to strengthen the organization’s ability to include them in the H&S management. The study was designed as a multiple case study. Twelve youth H&S groups were established and ran for 2 months within 10 supermarkets. Results based on qualitative data suggest that H&S groups for young workers have potential for increasing inclusion and involvement in the work environment among the young workers and for being beneficial for the supermarkets. However, the implementation requires continuous support from the management and H&S representatives.

The Importance of Lifting Height and Load Mass for Muscular Workload during Supermarket Stocking: Cross-Sectional Field Study

“…Having the right assistive devices for the work tasks at hand may be important as well, granted that differences in physical workload have been reported between different technical assistive devices [ 61 , 62 ]. In relation to this, a recent Danish study among young supermarket workers suggested accessibility and functionality of the technical devices as places for improvement worth focusing on in the occupational health and safety work in the supermarkets [ 63 ]. However, it should be noted that the overall positive evidence for the prevention of MSD by use of technical devices is not convincing, which could be due to unsuccessful implementation [ 21 , 22 ].…”