What are the consequences of MSDs?

Musculoskeletal disorders are pathologies that most often affect certain joints as well as the periarticular muscles. In most cases, musculoskeletal disorders appear because of a demanding, poorly organized professional activity or because of the intrinsic values of the victim. Businesses can suffer, both economically and professionally. MSDs affect much more the upper parts of the body of the upper limbs [shoulder, elbow, hand, wrist and fingers], but also the lower limbs.

The consequences of MSDs

If MSDs cause occupational diseases, they can be aggravated by the accumulation of several factors, which can be physical or psychosocial.

Physical factors usually stem from the iteration of certain actions at work, the security of tenure of the worker, and poor positions when performing a task or carrying heavy loads. As for psychosocial factors, they emanate from time pressures, dependence on managerial decisions that limit employee autonomy, lack of social support and monotony of work.

The upper joints are particularly affected by MSDs, especially those of the arms and hand, as well as the lower back.

However, MSDs have an impact on working life in companies.

For employees, the consequences of MSDs are plural and diverse. They are sometimes at the origin of a permanent stoppage of work and cause many handicaps to the worker. We see many people in professional disintegration because of these occupational diseases. MSDs affect their entire lives and also cause deformities. The most troublesome is the inability to work.

What are the socio-professional consequences?

The life of the company is lagging considerably. Prolonged employee absences can have an impact on production and income. Indeed, putting an employee on leave creates an imbalance on the entire team. This leads to a new distribution of workloads.

• New workload distribution

The workloads are distributed to the different teams who must submit their tasks on time according to the terms of reference set by the employer. But, a link in the chain that is missing because of an occupational disease can put his team behind. This has implications for the productivity and efficiency of the working group.

• Disorganization

Occupational diseases lead to a temporary cessation of professional practice of people who are affected. Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for nearly 88% of occupational disease cases in 2018. The prolonged and repeated absence of the employee can cause significant disruptions to the company’s activities. We will then see an overload of work for the colleagues of the employee on sick leave, resulting from his absence.

• The degradation of the company’s social environment

It is a fact that the social environment of the company is a determining factor in its operation. Without social cohesion, we see a decrease in employee motivation. There is also a decrease in the performance of other employees due to absenteeism caused by MSD cases.

• Dismissals

MSDs very often result in the dismissal of victims. Indeed, if the MSD is declared as capable of causing disability, there is no reason for the employer to keep the employer. Dismissals are made on the basis of certain criteria established in the eyes of the regulations. But even more, 30% of occupational diseases lead to permanent work stoppages.

What are the economic consequences?

From an economic point of view, the consequences of MSDs are quite preponderant. They encourage companies to incur unforeseen expenses for contributions due to accidents at work and occupational diseases. Thus, in 2017, the expenses related to the contributions of companies because of accidents at work and occupational diseases in France amounted to nearly two billion euros. This amount is attributable to the high rate of exposure to MSDs by employees. According to the Health Insurance, MSDs represent 87% of the causes of occupational diseases and the latter are at the origin of serious sequelae such as back pain, restrictions of ability that most often lead to professional disintegration. MSDs and back pain cause companies to lose an average of 22 million working days according to Health Insurance statistics in 2017.

In which sectors of activity do MSDs occur the most?

MSDs are most commonly found in seven major sectors of activity, including:

• the transport and logistics sector;
• trade;
• agri-food;
• buildings and public works;
• cleaning and cleanliness;
• the metallurgical industry;
• accommodation for dependent elderly people.

In these sectors of activity, the MSD rate is 35% in France.

How to be notified of your health insurance contribution rate?

The contribution rate of health insurance by a company is communicated by an online notification service available since 2019 because of the physical dematerialization of notifications, on the net-entreprise.fr website. It is mandatory for companies with 150 employees since 2020.

Musculoskeletal disorders have many consequences on the life of the company. They lead the company to a strong disorganization which is the source of a gradual decline in the company’s performance by reducing productivity and the quality of services. Repeated absenteeism results in a high turnover rate of the company’s teams.

To learn more about MSDs or to learn how to anticipate and remove MSDs, we invite you to read this article on our website.