Cutting health and safety risks in small businesses

A new Agency report, Promoting health and safety in European small and medium-sized enterprises: SME Funding Scheme 2002-2003, describes how a relatively small European funding scheme has helped over fifty projects to improve health and safety in SMEs. 

 

Small and medium-sized enterprises are key drivers in the European economy, but their safety and health performance often falls short of that of their larger counterparts. It is clear that many SMEs do not have the knowledge or the resources to manage their own health and safety problems. They need help with practical training and in gaining a better understanding of the issues, so that they assume higher priority than they generally do now. 

 

Health and safety issues in Europe’s small businesses were the focus of the second SME Funding Scheme (2002-2003) run by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, which has just published its report on 51 completed projects: 40 national and 11 transnational (involving cross-border cooperation between partners), with full contact details for anyone interested in finding out more. 

 

The overall aim was to reduce the number of accidents at work and to reduce the incidence of occupational ill health. Topics covered included chemical hazards, stress-related illness, prevention in high-risk sectors such as agriculture and construction, and the promotion of a preventive culture. 

 

For example, a project in Luxembourg developed a method of analysing the risks to which people working in crèches are exposed: notably lower back pain from bending and lifting. In cooperation with crèche staff, the project team identified problem areas, developed a guide to good practices and provided training for staff. 

 

In Denmark, a hospital department of occupational medicine set out to reduce knee problems by showing how floor layers could cut down the time spent putting undue strain on the knees. They trained instructors to use new tools that allowed much of the work to be carried out standing up. These instructors could then train operational floor layers on a region-by-region basis. 

 

A recent independent evaluation of the funding schemes, carried out by the Centre for Strategy and Evaluation Services (CSES), showed that the great majority of these initiatives would not have gone ahead without Agency funding, so the scheme fills a significant gap. 

 

The CSES concluded that this was a well-run programme, achieving considerable added value, having beneficial impacts for some 700,000 SMEs across Europe and wider ‘demonstration’ effects by highlighting good practices that could be replicated more widely.  

 

Noting that accident levels for small firms can reach up to 130% above the overall EU average Stephen Hughes, MEP, said in his introduction to the SME report: “The Agency’s schemes have shown EU policy-makers, such as the European Parliament, that current safety and health legislation, if complemented by good implementation practices, can lead to improved health and safety standards also in small firms across the EU.”  

 

The Agency’s Director Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, commenting on the report’s publication, said: “We are delighted that the Agency’s scheme has already been able to promote higher safety and health standards in some 700 000 SMEs. Our hope now is that many more SMEs will also benefit. Many of the cases covered in the report could be adapted and used by companies across Europe, so it is well-worth taking a look and seeing how the good practice developed by these project holders could be transferred to your own company!” 

 

The report is available in English now and can be downloaded from the Agency website at http://agency.osha.europa.eu/publications/reports/107/en/index.htm.  

END 

Press contacts: 

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, email: information@osha.europa.eu, fax: +34 94 479 4383.