Christa Sedlatschek, director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, explains how its
latest Healthy Workplaces campaign – Working together for risk prevention - can not only help to
improve occupational safe
Christa Sedlatschek, director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, explains how its
latest Healthy Workplaces campaign - Working together for risk prevention - can not only help to
improve occupational safety and health but can make businesses more competitive
The world's biggest occupational
safety and health campaign is
back, with a new focus. The
Healthy Workplaces Campaign for 2012-
13, entitled 'Working together for risk
prevention', is about helping businesses,
workers and their representatives to cooperate,
to manage the risks that
Europe's workers are facing.
Despite the progress made in occupational
safety and health (OSH) in the last few
years, European workers are still dying
needlessly, and in their thousands. Every
year in the EU, over five and a half
thousand people die as a result of
workplace accidents. Many thousands
more die from occupational diseases: the
equivalent of one every three and a half
minutes.
These deaths are only part of the story:
millions more European workers are
having to live with the effects of workplace
accidents, or long-term damage to their
health caused by their work. We can try to
calculate the economic impact that all this
represents - we think workplace accidents
and ill health are costing the EU as a
whole around 4% of total GDP, or 490
billion Euros every year. But that isn't
taking account of the human cost, which
we can't put a figure on. What we do know
is that most of these accidents and cases of
ill-health can be prevented.
Risk prevention is central to the
approach that we take, in Europe, to
keeping workers safe and healthy. Look at
European legislation on OSH and you'll
see the importance of risk prevention, and
the obligations that employers have to
carry it out, emphasised again and again.
But it's not enough just to pass laws telling
people what they need to do. We need to
make employers and employees more
aware of their responsibilities, and to
understand that risk prevention is done
best when we work together. That's why
the new campaign focuses on risk
prevention, and the benefits of cooperation
in carrying it out.
Engaging workers
European law makes managers and the
organisations they lead primarily
responsible for keeping workers safe.
Good leadership in this area is vitally
important. But we also know that risk
prevention works best when managers
engage their workforces in the process.
Workers often have the best
understanding of their workplaces, the
possible risks involved in working in
them, and generally will implement any
changes that need to be made.
Our research shows that whatever an
organisation's size, leadership and the
active participation of workers are crucial
to successful health and safety
management. Our own European
Enterprise Survey on New and Emerging
Risks (ESENER) involved interviewing
some 36,000 managers and worker
representatives, and it gives us a picture of
how health and safety is currently being
managed in European workplaces
(www.esener.eu). ESENER shows that
enterprises where there
is good commitment
on OSH from
management, and high
levels of worker
participation, are more
likely to have proper
health and safety
policies in place - up to
ten times more likely.
We work much better
when we work together.
The construction of the Olympic Park
and Stadium for the London 2012
Olympics is an example of how things can
go well when employers and employees
co-operate on OSH. At the time this was
the largest infrastructure construction
project in Europe, involving some 36,000
employees, and with contractors ranging
from big multinationals to small SMEs.
But throughout the project there was a
real emphasis on worker engagement and
feedback. This is the first Olympics in
which the construction of the Olympic
stadium has seen no fatalities. And
overall, accident rates were broadly the
same as those in all United Kingdom
sectors, not just in construction.
A wise investment
Our Healthy Workplaces Campaign
(launched in April) is focusing on
encouraging bosses and top managers to
show leadership in engaging in risk
reduction, and encouraging workers and
their representatives to work together with
managers to reduce risks.
In these difficult economic times, it
sends a strong message to organisations
about the value of putting time and
resources into risk prevention. The
evidence is clear: investment in OSH pays
off. László Andor, European
Commissioner responsible for
employment, social affairs and inclusion,
said at a recent presidency conference on
health and safety in Copenhagen that
"investing in OSH contributes to
company performance, improves staff
well-being, reduces absenteeism and staff
turnover, and brings greater job
satisfaction. There is no doubt that a
good working environment is a big factor
in competitiveness and can play a crucial
role in increasing the workforce's
potential. This policy area should
therefore be seen as contributing
significantly to achieving the objectives of
the Europe 2020 Strategy, helping to
foster smart, sustainable and inclusive
growth, and in particular to raise the
employment rate from the current 69% to
at least 75%".
For more information about the
campaign, visit www.healthyworkplaces.
eu.