For businesses, the RSI explosion is a very large and different challenge. It actually costs a lot of money. Indemnities range from fifty thousand guilders to several tons.
Some companies want to anticipate and take their own precautions. Philips has handled it in a very good way. For several months there has been a team of thirty doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists and fitness therapists at the electronics company ready to help RSI victims within the company with a sophisticated training geared towards the complaints. And it seems to have been effective: four months after employees had trained for four hours per week under the leadership of the team, they found 90% of complaints.
In early October the bank opened an RSI prevention center, according to the bank ‘Ergolab “full of odds and ends such as strangely shaped ergonomic mice and armrests for the office. ABN Amro thus wants her 35 thousand health workers aware of the existence of RSI and what’s on the market to prevent the disease.
Ros is project leader of the RSI prevention center that has been developed for the 35.000 healthy employees of ABN AMRO in the Netherlands. “Rsi is also within ABN Amro an increasingly common complaint. It has many different causes, and therefore a multidisciplinary approach. It is in effect a change in work behavior, the attitude and the work environment. We are trying to make our employees aware of this” said Ros.
The aim of this project is to educate all healthy employees about RSI. That way they know how to prevent repetitive strain injuries, they learn to recognize the early signs and they can use the necessary products from the RSI Prevention Center to prevent it even evolving.
According to the ergonomist it is crucial that managers are aware of the problem within the bank. “They are indeed responsible for the RSI policy in their departments. If the managers are aware of the existence of the problem and possible solutions, it is easier for employees to discuss something like that.”
