Europe’s social partners first to sign up to ‘Building in Safety’ campaign charter

Europe’s social partners in the construction industry, FIEC and EFBWW, representing over 80 unions and federations across the continent, have signed the new ‘Building in Safety’ campaign charter, launched by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.  

 

The campaign charter, which is part of the Agency’s 2004 European Week on Safety and Health at Work (18-22 October 2004), aimed this year at construction work, commits signatories to contribute to the campaign and to improve safety and health standards in the sector via training, information and other initiatives. In return for their commitment, signatories will receive a ‘building in safety’ certificate from the Agency. 

 

Both European Social Partners - the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) and the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) - were the first to sign the charter at the official launch of the Agency’s European Week in Dublin on 30 April 2004. The FIEC currently represents 32 national federation members in 25 countries, while the EFBWW has 50 affiliated unions in 17 countries, representing over 2 million workers.  

 

Peter Andrews, the FIEC Vice President responsible for social affairs says: “For us, the key objective is to ensure that this campaign reaches the widest possible audience. This new charter is an important means of increasing individual commitment to health and safety initiatives on-site and we see this as a continued part of our efforts to achieve real progress across the European construction industry”. 

 

Harrie Beijen, General Secretary of the EFBWW, comments: “The life and health of every construction worker can be better protected by joint efforts of all parties concerned; governments, clients, architects, engineers, contractors and workers. We can learn from one another and set specific benchmarks for specific problems. If this European campaign can encourage this then we have already won a lot”.  

 

“Having FIEC and EFBWW as the first signatories to our campaign charter not only demonstrates their strong commitment to raising safety and health standards in construction but will also encourage others to follow their lead,” adds Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the Agency. “Our common goal is to reduce the appalling human and economic costs of occupational accidents and ill-health in construction, so we need everyone with a stake in the industry, from building firms to architects and engineers, to get involved and to sign up.” 

 

To sign the online charter, and for further information about the Agency’s 2004 European Week, visit: http://ew2004.osha.europa.eu. Registration takes just five minutes. The web site also provides information on how to improve safety and health standards, including good practice examples and related links.  

 

ENDS 

 

Further information 

 

Press contacts: Brenda O’Brien, email: obrien@osha.europa.eu European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Tel: +34 94 479 35 41; Andrew Smith, email: smith@osha.europa.eu European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Tel: +34 94 479 57 33  

 

Other enquiries: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Gran Via 33, E-48009 Bilbao, Spain, e-mail: information@osha.europa.eu , fax: (34) 94 479 43 83.  

 

1.The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work was set up by the European Union to help meet the information needs in the field of occupational safety and health. Based in Bilbao, Spain, the Agency aims to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information between all those involved in occupational safety and health issues.  

 

2.The European Week for Safety and Health at Work which will take place on 18-22 October 2004 is an information campaign designed to raise awareness and promote activities to make Europe a safe and healthy place to work. It is coordinated by the European Agency and will be run in the Member States, accession, EFTA and candidate countries. The Week is aimed at the workplace and all safety and health institutions and organisations, trade unions, companies, managers, employees and safety representatives are invited to take part and organise their own activities. These can include special audits and risk assessment activities in the workplace, organising training, distributing information material, launching a new workplace policy, suggestion schemes, encouraging participation of employees and their representatives or linking-up with other organisations, businesses or sub contractors to carry out activities in partnership. The slogan of EW2004 is ‘Building in Safety’. 

 

3.FIEC: email: info@fiec.org; website: www.fiec.org 

 

4.EFBWW: email: info@efbh.be; website: www.efbww.org