Support grows for European risk assessment campaign

Among the participating organisations are European employers’ and workers’ federations, multinational companies from various industry sectors, research platforms, non-profit organisations and NGOs. By signing up as official partners, these organisations commit themselves to organise events on risk assessment and to disseminate the campaign messages and material. Other activities include the production of workplace safety and health videos, photo competitions or training sessions with clients, partners and contractors.

“To have 17 official campaign partners on board even before we enter the second campaign year – this is well beyond our initial expectations”, Jukka Takala, Director of EU-OSHA said. “We are very proud that so many renowned organisations decided to help us raise awareness on risk assessment, and we are actually in touch with a number of other federations and multinationals. So this number will continue to grow in the future.” Takala also stressed the importance of the campaign subject. “Risk assessment is the key to preventing accidents and ill health at work. Although it is a legal obligation throughout Europe, there are still companies that do not assess their risks regularly, especially in SMEs, and we would like to see this change.”

In return for their substantial involvement in the campaign, every official campaign partner receives a Partner Certificate and EU-OSHA rewards them with extensive promotion via its website and newsletter to more than 39,000 subscribers and to the media.

 See all partners

Quotes:

•    Frédéric Lamouroux, President Air Liquide Welding:

“All accidents can be avoided. Zero accidents is a top priority.”

•    Art Gibson, Vice president, Environment, Health & Safety, Baxter International:

“At Baxter, we believe that hazard identification and risk assessments are the fundamental building blocks of our health and safety management system and engage our employees throughout the world in achieving our vision of an injury-free culture.”

•    Helmut Müllers, General Secretary of Confédération Européenne des Syndicats Indépendants (CESI):

“Risk Assessment in the workplace is everyone’s business. It cannot be done seriously without the involvement of workers’ representatives. As a social partner, CESI commits to raise awareness on these issues in public as well as in private sectors.”

•    Hans Klemme-Wolff, Chairman of the European Federation of National Maintenance Societies (EFNMS):

“We are very pleased to contribute to this campaign. The special focus on maintenance will help in the understanding of this risky workplace, since maintenance is one of the most dangerous industrial jobs. The most dangerous crafts in maintenance are fitters, boilermakers and piping makers. In our best practice examples we can demonstrate that there is a direct relation between good maintenance practices and improved safety results. The campaign will provide new emphasis on those issues and the different associations around Europe will help in spreading the campaign material through all our available channels. We welcome also this platform to direct more management focus on these issues to insure healthy workplaces for the future.”

•    Christian Jochum, Director of the European Process Safety Centre (EPSC):

EPSC fully supports this campaign, especially the emphasis on the combination of risk assessment and healthy workplaces. Without doubt they form a virtuous circle.”

•    John Lechleiter, President and Chief Executive Officer Eli Lilly:

“Respect for people is a core value at Eli Lilly and Company. In keeping with this value, we endeavour to make sure that no one gets hurt at work. As we strive to achieve world-class performance in health and safety, we firmly believe the risk assessment process can help us meet our ambitious goals.”

•    Ricardo Cordoba, President General Electric Energy, West Europe and North Africa:

“General Electric is honoured to be a partner with the Agency in promoting Environmental, Health & Safety excellence in Europe. Risk Assessment is a core program within the company's operating system and part of our overall operational strategy”

•    Thierry Salmona, President of European Association of Industrial Minerals Producers (IMA-Europe):

“IMA-Europe is pleased to be an official partner to the European Agency’s Healthy Workplaces campaign. Workers’ health and safety has always been at the core of the Association’s activities. Industrial minerals employers are dedicated to good management of health and safety risks at the workplace of which a proper risk assessment is a fundamental step. We will contribute to the campaign by spreading the campaign’s materials and exchanging good practice experiences, particularly among SMEs.”

Background:

The Healthy Workplaces campaign on Risk Assessment runs over two years (2008/2009) and is backed by the EU Presidencies, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European social partners. With the help of its network of national focal points in the 27 EU member states and accession countries, EU-OSHA organises hundreds of events and activities throughout the campaign.

Main campaign objectives:

• raise awareness of the legal responsibility and the importance and practical need to assess risks in the workplace

• demystify the process and show, especially to SMEs, that risk assessment is not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic, or a task only for experts

• promote a five-step approach to risk assessment

• promote the involvement of everyone in the workplace

• promote good practices which are transferable and help make the process easier

Further reading:

See the Partners section on the campaign website

Campaign summary

TV journalists (free-of-charge footage material + edited report on risk assessment)

Access our Risk assessment Entry Point

*Every year 5,720 people die in the European Union as a consequence of work-related accidents, according to EUROSTAT figures (1). Besides that, the International Labour Organisation estimates (2) that an additional 159,500 workers in the EU die every year from occupational diseases. Taking both figures into consideration, it is estimated that every three-and-a-half minutes somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes and that every four-and-a-half seconds an EU worker is involved in an accident that forces them to stay at home for at least three working days (3).

(1) EUROSTAT 2005: Figure in recorded economic sectors covering 87% of the workforce in the 27 EU Member States.

(3) ILO estimates 2008