Brussels, 13/06/2008 (Agence Europe) -In Brussels on Friday 13 June, the European Commission and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (Bilbao) launched a campaign entitled "Healthy workplaces: good for you. Good for business". This campaign, in which 35 European countries will take part, has the objective of demystifying the process of risk assessment at work in line with the Community health and safety at work strategy 2007-2012, which aims to reduce by 25% the number of accidents linked to work over the same period. More specifically, it focuses on high-risk sectors such as construction, healthcare, agriculture and SMEs. It will run over two years with its own total budget of 5 million euros.
Every 4 ½ seconds in the EU, a worker is the victim of an accident which obliges him or her to stay off work for at least three working days (a total in excess of 7 million employees every year). Every 3 ½ seconds in the EU, somebody dies of causes related to his or her professional activity, totalling nearly 167,000 deaths every year resulting from accidents at the workplace (7500) or occupational diseases (159,500), according to the ILO (2005). Every year, 5720 people die in the EU as a result of accidents linked to their work, according to Eurostat (2005).
Speaking before the press, Commissioner Vladimir Spidla stressed that these occupational diseases were highly expensive, in terms of human costs (for the workers and their families) and for business (reduction in productivity, increase in rate of absenteeism from work, reduced levels of motivation among staff). Furthermore, professional accidents and diseases entail a considerable burden on our health care systems.
The Commissioner pointed out that Directive 89/391/EEC on the implementation of measures to improve the health and safety of workers at work requires all employers to carry out risk assessments. Spidla stressed that these assessments were compulsory rather than optional and had to be followed up by tangible action.
Romana Tomc, Slovenian secretary of state for labour, family and social affairs, stressed the unconditional support for this campaign from the Slovenian Presidency of the EU and member states' national health and safety at work authorities, which showed 'that occupational safety and health at work is a key issue for the European social model'. Accidents at work lead to loss of income for companies and workers alike, and accidents at work also caused personal health problems like disability and early death, she explained.
Jukka Takala, director of the EU-OSHA, explained the key messages of the campaign: 'First, risk assessment is not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic or a task only for experts. This is a mistaken belief that is particularly common among SMEs. But there are plenty of tools available (such as checklists) that help in the process, and EU-OHSA promotes a simple five-step approach. Secondly, proper risk assessment also brings a number of business benefits, because making workplaces safer and healthier helps to reduce absenteeism and insurance costs, and increased worker motivation and productivity.' (G.B./transl.fl)