A report issued by the German IKK-Bundesverband (private health insurer for the craft sector in
Germany with five million members) [101] in Germany revealed that glass and building cleaners have
a higher incidence of work-related diseases (5.3%) than the average workers they insured (4.1%),
and even higher than the average for the healthcare and cleaning sector (3.9%) under which glass
and building cleaners are also counted. The average duration of sick-leave for glass and building
cleaners is also higher (15.2 days per employee) than for the health and cleaning sectors (12.2 days)
and for IKK’s insured workers (12.0 days). Long-term sick-leaves (over 6 week duration) in the glass
and building cleaners represent 5.9% of all cases of work-related diseases and are responsible for
45.5% of all sick-leave days in these specific jobs, compared to 42.5% of sick-leave days for all IKK’s
insured workers.
The IKK study also shows that the number of sick-leave days due to MSDs is twice as high as the
one due to accidents at work for glass and building cleaners, and 66.7% higher than the IKK average.
The same situation was also observed for the number of sick-leave days due to other health
problems, such as mental ill health (42.5% higher than IKK average), skin diseases (+25.8%),
respiratory disorders (+17%), circulatory problems (+15.8%), injuries (+10%) and digestive disorders
(+9.2%) [101].