Press

On Cleaning Day, household helpers, cleaners and cleaning staff take centre stage. Rightly so, as they help keep homes, offices, schools and other workplaces clean every day. Behind this essential work, however, lies a physical workload that is often underestimated. That is why IDEWE, Belgium’s largest external service for prevention and protection at work, is drawing attention to the importance of ergonomic cleaning. By using the right techniques and tools, cleaning professionals can prevent physical complaints and remain healthy and active in their jobs for longer.

The summer holidays are just around the corner. For many employees, it is the perfect time to switch off from work for a while. Yet nearly 1 in 10 employees (9%) say their manager expects them to respond to work-related messages outside working hours. These findings come from new figures* released by IDEWE, Belgium’s external service for prevention and protection at work. While this marks an improvement compared to 2022, when 13% experienced such pressure to remain available, clear agreements remain essential. That is why IDEWE is sharing 8 practical tips for employers and employees.   

Four in ten healthcare workers (38%) experienced aggression from external parties, such as patients or visitors, at least occasionally in 2025.  7.5% even reported such behaviour from their own colleagues. Aggression takes various forms, including verbal abuse, threats and physical incidents, and has a clear impact on employees’ wellbeing and performance. These findings come from IDEWE, Belgium’s largest external service for prevention and protection at work, in its recent study*, published ahead of International Nurses Day.

Nearly 90% of employees in Belgium rate their health as good to excellent. Yet around 1 in 10 regularly experiences stress, mental or physical exhaustion due to work, and 33.7% have one or more active health problems. Meanwhile, the number of employees who are overweight continues to rise, the number with high blood pressure remains high, physical activity levels are still too low, and the number of smokers is not declining. This is evident from the new Health Report* 2024 by IDEWE, Belgium’s largest external service for prevention and protection at work, based on data from 282,195 employees.  

During the night from Saturday 28 to Sunday 29 March, we switch to daylight saving time again. As a result, we lose an hour of sleep, but gain more daylight. This is a seemingly small change that can have a considerable impact on our biorhythms and our energy levels, and can therefore also affect our work. That is why IDEWE, the largest Belgian external service for prevention and protection at work, shares tips for employees and employers to get through the first working week after the transition as productively as possible.

3% of the 775,277 employees at IDEWE are diagnosed with cancer. Higher cancer burden by sector: among healthcare workers with cancer, 46% had breast cancer; in construction, 22% had prostate cancer and 12% had lung cancer. IDEWE recommendation: stay in contact with employees during absence and involve the occupational physician immediately. 

Senior roles experience more meaning in their work. Education sector scores highest: around 90% finds own work meaningful. Only 28% of the respondents can fully utilise their potential. Clear link between technostress and meaningful work.

Following an earlier book focusing on policy, he now offers concrete tools to managers and HR professionals to communicate with sick employees and guide them effectively towards a sustainable return to work. The book is published by Lannoo and officially presented on November 26th at IDEWE in Leuven. 

Predicted absence due to work-related stress and conflicts almost as high (13%) as due to physical reasons (15%). Only 26% believe management responds quickly to mental problems. 72% of employees know where to turn for stress, bullying or conflicts.

When thinking about 'working in the heat' today, people immediately think of roofers and other outdoor professions. And although their work, now that our country is once again bathed in a heatwave, is currently no walk in the park, we rarely stop to consider that in Belgium many people - 143,131 to be precise - deal with heat at work every workday, all year round. This emerges from new figures from IDEWE, Belgium's largest external occupational health and safety service, based on a methodology from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO and KU Leuven in the context of the European Climate Research project Intercambio.