We are one of the smallest EU agencies and cannot promise to reply to every comment, but we will read them and bear them in mind to shape our future work. The blog content is available only in English.
SÜDWESTMETALL is one of the Germany's largest Employers' Associations in the Metal and Electrical Industry, representing the interests of more than a thousand member organisations who employ around half a million workers in businesses of all sizes. More than 80 per cent of the member organisations have less than 500 employees.
Along with EU-OSHA Governing Board Member Mr Eckehart Metze, I was invited by Mr Kai Schweppe, head of the department for labour policy, to see how this employers' organisation offered assistance to its members, particularly to small and medium enterprises.
SÜDWESTMETALL not only supports the companies in the implementation of collective agreements (Tarifverträge) between social partners. Within the area of labour policy, occupational safety and health plays a key role. SÜDWESTMETALL is assisting enterprises in the organisation of preventive measures in close co-operation with the responsible person at company level and is initiatiating research in the field of health and safety at work to develop the knowledge-base in both practical and policy-level approaches.
On 19-20 November the Director of EU-OSHA, Dr Christa Sedlatschek, visited Denmark in order to meet and exchange information with key stakeholders. A comprehensive programme had been organised by the Danish Focal Point and Head of Unit Ms Charlotte Skjoldager, the Danish Working Environment Authority.
November 2012 marked a new milestone for the ILO-CIS Centres' Network run by the International Labour Office. The network celebrated its 50th meeting on 20/21 November 2012, bringing together collaborating centres from around the world to the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Malta may be the smallest Member State in the EU by both area and population size, but it is one of the leaders in the proactive protection of its workers. On 14/15 November, The Occupational Safety and Health Authority of Malta (OHSA) hosted a focal point network meeting of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
The cartoon character Napo has done some great work for us and our partners in the Napo consortium over the years, helping to get our health and safety messages across in a fun and accessible way. We’ve seen him dealing with the hazards of loud noise, tobacco smoke and heavy lifting in the workplace. Now, he’s turning his attention to dangerous chemical substances, and changes in the way that they are packaged and labeled.
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| Cyprus: 50,000 lottery tickets with the logo of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign |
Anyone who has taken part in the Cyprus lottery recently might have noticed something unusual about it: the logo of our most recent Healthy Workplaces Campaign, Working Together for Risk Prevention, has been appearing on tickets. With the lottery very popular among Cypriot employees, this is just one of the imaginative ways of getting across our message about the Campaign, which we’ve seen during the European Week for Safety and Health at Work.
Where should EU-OSHA promote its Healthy Workplaces Campaign on prevention in Sweden? At "Gilla Jobbet", a two-day conference held at Stockholm International Fair.
With the English title of "on top of work", AFA Insurance and Prevent Sweden hosted on 24th and 25th October a major fair on all aspects of the work environment and working life.
This was the question posed at EU-OSHA when they received visitors from Prevent Sweden who were demonstrating their new ICT stress resources. Prevent is Scandinavia’s leading provider of knowledge and training in the field of health and safety.
Stress at work associated with information and communication technologies (ICT) is a serious concern as it impacts on so many workers - there are few of us who are totally removed from such technologies.
Throughout this European Year for Active Ageing, we’ve been stressing the importance of ‘age management’ in the workplace.
There are all kinds of things that employers can be doing, to improve the fit between the work that a job demands and the capabilities of workers as they get older: everything from reducing physical workloads to introducing regular short breaks into the working day.
Already, many European organisations are taking this kind of action, to help older people stay working longer in the workplace, meaning that organisations themselves benefit from the greater experience that older workers can offer.
Reaching into Europe's workplaces is the goal of EU-OSHA, to provide key information so that the risks to workers health and safety are prevented. This objective is achieved by having a national focal point for each Member State that manages a network made up of worker, employer, and governmental representatives. In Bucharest on 19 July 2012, the Romanian Network met to hear about and discuss the work of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
