PARALLEL SESSION 1

Maurizio is a Senior Research Project Manager in the Prevention and Research Unit at EU-OSHA, where he has managed the multiannual research programme on work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders, and is currently involved in a number of other research activities in the area of digitalisation and OSH. He is also content manager for the ongoing Healthy Workplaces Campaign titled ‘Safe and healthy work in the digital age’.

Maurizio has been working in the socio-economic research domain focusing in particular on topics related to labour market, working conditions and quality of work, international development and evaluation of public policies. Prior to joining EU-OSHA, he worked for organisations such as the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (EUROFOUND), the International Labour Office (ILO) and the European Commission.

Maurizio holds a BA in Economics from the University of Naples “Federico II”, a MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics from the City University of London and a PhD in Economics from the University of Rome III and the University of Barcelona.

Ignacio González Vázquez is researcher at the European Commission´s Joint Research Centre, where he coordinates a research programme on the changing nature of work. His research focuses on the impact of the digital revolution on work organisation and job quality considering also other factors such as the institutional framework and the energy transition. His programme of work on this topic is structured along three main vectors of change through which digital technologies are affecting the world of work. First, the automation of work, focusing on the replacement of human by machine input for some types of tasks. Second, the digitalisation of processes, focusing on how the increasing use of digital tools at work transforms the nature of work itself. And third, the platformisation of work, focusing on how digital platforms and algorithmic management are increasingly used for work organisation. Mr. Gonzalez Vazquez holds a Ph.D. from the University of Seville, and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Throughout his career in the European Commission he has also worked in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion dealing the employment and social aspects of the European Semester, and the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs dealing with the economic adjustment programme for Greece, among others.

Karolien Lenaerts is the Head of the Research Group Work, Organisation & Social Dialogue at HIVA – Research Institute for Work and Society – KU Leuven and an Associate Professor at the KU Leuven Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, in the Department of Occupational & Organisational Psychology and Professional Learning. She is co-teaching the course ‘diagnostics and interventions in the field of work and organizational psychology’ and guiding bachelor, master and PhD students with their thesis. Her research is mainly focused on the quality of work, working and employment conditions, non-standard form of work (such as temporary agency work, digital platform work), occupational safety and health, industrial relations and social dialogue (such as workplace democracy, institutional settings, social dialogue in the social economy, the relation with social movements), the impacts of global megatrends including digitalisation on labour markets and welfare states, and related issues. Karolien coordinates the Horizon Europe projects WeLaR and DICES, and is involved in a number of studies that were commissioned by the European Commission, the European Parliament, EU Agencies, national or regional governments, social partners organisations, and other actors. In recent years, Karolien contributed to EU-OSHA studies on digital platform work, (the interplay between) psychosocial risks and musculoskeletal disorders, workforce diversity, work in the health and social care sector, and labour shortages.

Pablo Sanz has a PhD in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and currently works as lecturer in sociology in the Department of Psychology and Sociology at the University of Zaragoza. His areas of interest include European governance of employment, labour law enforcement, industrial democracy, vocational education and training and the impact of digitalization in the world of work. He has worked on several European research projects on these topics funded by the European Commission, the European Foundation for the Improvement of living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) or the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). His work has been published in academic journals such as the European Journal of Industrial Relations, the Journal of Vocational Education & Training, the Journal of Industrial Relations, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Labour and Industry and other outlets.

Geronimo Grieger, an occupational psychologist, economist and health psychologist in training, was working in different professions during his studies in Innsbruck, Austria (f.i. test application for assessment centers, legwork for psychosocial risk assessments, professional reintegration, road safety education, psychiatric nursing…) before he started working in the banking industry in Vienna in 2019. There, he had a broad variety of tasks, some of them linked to organisational psychology. In 2022 he decided to start a career in the public sector and bring in his knowledge. Since then, he is working on the enforcement and further development of psychological OSH in Austria. Thanks to the cooperation of the EU-OSHA and the Austrian Focal Point he was able to specialize on psychological OSH in digital working environments and, together with his colleagues, directly “inject” the campaign outcomes into the organisational knowledge of the Austrian Labour Inspection via tailored webinars and a contribution to a central onsite event. He also was a speaker at the “Forum Prävention International (FPI)” of the Austrian Social Insurance for Occupational Risks (AUVA), collaborated with the Austrian associations for psychology (GKPP and BÖP) and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence (BMLV), while developing a “Digitalisation-Risk-Matrix”. Additional areas of interest and expertise are f.i. violence protection within OSH, target group-effective occupational safety and health (diversity in OSH), effects of traditional masculine behaviour on OSH and prevention of work-related illnesses.