European Week for Safety and Health at Work puts spotlight on safe maintenance
News release - 24.10.2011
Safe maintenance will be the focus of the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, which this year will be marked from 24 to 28 October with a series of awareness-raising events, including workshops, seminars and exhibitions. The week is part of the Healthy Workplaces campaign, organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and its partners across the EU and beyond.
‘The safe maintenance campaign is drawing record levels of involvement with our Europe-wide network of focal points and more than 50 companies and organisations that joined as Official Campaign Partners’, explains Dr Christa Sedlatschek, Director of EU-OSHA. ‘Since April 2010, the campaign has mobilised some 10,000 people though more than a hundred partnership meetings and a series of media activities, to bring safe maintenance to the fore. Benefits for organisations of being a campaign partner include greater employee engagement (43%) and better networking activities (64%)’, she continues.
The European Week will consolidate these activities, with many of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign events focused around this week.
The new Safe Maintenance Magazine features articles demonstrating a wide range of maintenance-related issues that impact safety and health in the workplace, including maintenance organisation and planning, risk assessment, human behaviour, chemical safety, design, subcontracting, communication and inspection of personal protective equipment.
A wide variety of campaign material is available in 24 languages to download from the Healthy Workplaces Campaign website.
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Notes to editors
1. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) contributes to making Europe a safer, healthier and more productive place to work. The Agency researches, develops, and distributes reliable, balanced, and impartial safety and health information and organises pan-European awareness raising campaigns. Set up by the European Union in 1996 and based in Bilbao, Spain, the Agency brings together representatives from the European Commission, Member State governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations, as well as leading experts in each of the EU-27 Member States and beyond.
Now you can follow us on Twitter, visit the Agency’s blog or subscribe to our monthly newsletter OSHmail. You can also register for regular news and information from EU-OSHA via RSS feeds.
2. The Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2010/11, which is co-ordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and its partners in the 27 EU Member States, supports a wide range of activities at the national and European level that promote safe maintenance. It highlights the importance of maintenance to eliminate workplace hazards, and to provide safer and healthier working conditions in workplaces throughout Europe. The campaign concludes with the Healthy Workplaces Summit 2011 in Bilbao on 22 and 23 November. http://hw.osha.europa.eu
Press inquiries
- Birgit Müller - International press +34 94 479 35 52 | news@osha.europa.eu
- Marta Urrutia - Spanish press +34 94 479 57 46 | noticias@osha.europa.eu
- Brenda O’Brien - Brussels Liaison Office +32 2 401 68 59 | obrien@osha.europa.eu
EU-OSHA is joined in its campaign by the following partners
Air Liquide Welding; Baxter International; Behavioural Science Technology International; BusinessEurope; CEOC International; Comité Syndical Européen de l’éducation; Confederation of European Paper Industries; Delphi; DuPont International Operations SARL; Employee Assistance European Forum; European Aggregates Association; European Association of Craft, Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises; European Association of Paritarian Institutions; European Builders Confederation; European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public services; European Chemical Industry Council; European Chemical Transport Association A.I.S.B.L. - I.V.Z.W.; European Confederation of Police; European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting; European Federation of Building and Woodworkers; European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions; European Federation of National Maintenance Societies vzw; European Industrial Minerals Association; European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation European Operating Room Nurses Association; European Process Safety Centre; European Safety Federation; European Technology Platform on Industrial Safety; European Textile Services Association; European Trade Union Confederation; European Transport Safety Council; European Transport Workers' Federation; European Virtual Institute for Integrated Risk Management; Féderation de l'Industrie Européenne de la Construction; Federation of European Risk Management Associations; Federation of Occupational Health Nurses within the European Union; Federation of the European Ergonomic Societies; GAMESA; GE Energy Golder Associates; Granite Services International; Ideal Standard International; Intel International B.V; International Institute of Risk and Safety Management; International Safety and Health Construction Coordinators Organization; Medicover; Pirelli & C SpA; Réseau Européen FOCUS; Standing Committee of European Doctors; SYNDEX; The Engineering Equipment & Materials Users' Association; TOYOTA Material Handling Europe; UNI Europa.
