Why risk assessment?

Every three-and-a-half minutes, somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes. This means almost 167,000 deaths a year as a result of either work-related accidents (7,500) or occupational diseases (159,500).

Every four-and-a-half seconds, a worker in the EU is involved in an accident that forces him/her to stay at home for at least three working days. The number of accidents at work causing three or more days of absence is huge, with over 7 million every year.

This all comes at a huge cost:

Human cost for workers and their families (real people behind each statistic)
Business costs for organisations/ companies (sick leave, insurance costs, productivity, turnover, motivation, competitiveness etc.)
Cost for society (increasing burden on healthcare systems)

Risk assessment is one of the main pillars of the framework and other directives on occupational safety and health (OSH). Investing in awareness raising and communication of resources, information and good practice is of clear value.

A prevention approach based on risk assessment is the cornerstone of the European approach to OSH. This is for good reasons. If the risk assessment process - the start of the risk management approach - is not done well or not done at all, the appropriate preventive measures are unlikely to be in place.

Too often, organisations do not adequately assess the risks in their workplaces. It can be a challenge for some, especially for micro-firms and SMEs, but this need not be so.

Risk assessment is part of a good management approach; EU legislation, including amongst others the Framework Directive, is in place along with some guidance, information and good practice resources.

What is needed is an integrated risk assessment approach that takes into account the different steps of risk assessment, the different needs of individual employers, and the changing world of work.

The Agency will focus on communicating the general principles of integrated risk assessment, its importance for effective prevention, and that risk assessment is both necessary and feasible.

Risk assessment is the start of the risk management approach.
A first step towards systematic OSH management.

For more information please check:

Factsheet 80: “Risk Assessment – the key to Healthy Workplaces”
Factsheet 81: “Risk Assessment – roles and responsibilities”
Dedicated web section on Risk Assessment

Why is it an EU issue?

The need for improvement in risk assessment was identified in the Communication from the Commission on the practical implementation of the provisions of the Framework Directive, and its five first individual directives (COM (2004) 62 final).

The review found that:

There is general lack of awareness of what is required and how to carry out a risk assessment
The tasks of risk assessment, documentation and supervision is not universally spread
Risk assessment is often considered a ‘one-off’ action and is not sustained
Risks are not analysed and evaluated collectively; as a result, separate measures are being set in place, but there is no integrative approach for the analysis of the conditions at the workplace
In the course of conducting superficial risk assessments the focus is put on identifying ‘obvious and immediate risks’; long-term effects such as those caused by chemicals are being neglected
Psychosocial risks and work organisation factors are rarely considered in risk assessment
The efficiency of the measures taken is not sufficiently supervised by employers

Since the risk assessment approach was first introduced into the EU directives, there is clear agreement that it should be part of an integrated management approach which the campaign will promote.