This report considers the challenges to be overcome in improving the safety and
health of cleaners, and examines actions taken to achieve this goal. By its nature, the
report focuses on challenges associated with cleaning tasks, seeking solutions to
these challenges that can reduce the risks to workers’ health and safety.
In 2009, EU-OSHA carried out the first Europe-wide establishment survey on health and safety at the workplace, the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER).
Following on from the initial analysis presented in the descriptive overview report in 2010, four secondary analysis projects have been carried out in 2011. This report focuses on management of safety and health at work, examining how practices vary across Europe depending on, for example, establishment size, location and sector.
Safe and healthy workplaces help businesses and organisations to succeed and prosper and also benefit wider society. This guide gives business leaders practical information on how safety and health can be improved through effective leadership, worker involvement and ongoing assessment and review, making businesses and organisations safe and healthy for everyone. A diagnostic check gives an idea of the level of prevention in a company and provides ideas for improvement.
One conclusion from the EU-OSHA economic incentives project is that incentives schemes should not only reward past results of good OSH management (such as accident numbers in experience rating), but should also reward specific prevention efforts that aim to reduce future accidents and ill-health. Experts from the economic incentives project therefore suggested the development of compilations of innovative and evidence-based preventive solutions, starting with the three sectors construction, health care and HORECA (hotels, restaurants, catering). The preventive measures from these compilations are worth promoting in their own right, as well as being applied in economic incentives schemes. These preventive solutions can be used as a basis for incentive-providing organisations to develop their own incentive scheme, adapted to the specific situation in their sector and country.