Closing of the 2012/2013 campaign “Together for the Prevention of Risks” of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

Recall that the European campaign 2012/2013 “Together for the prevention of risks” (“Working together for risk prevention”).
was launched by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, (site https://osha.europa.eu/fr ) with the aim of developing in the Enterprise Cooperation at all levels (management, hierarchy Intermediary, execution staff) to develop a risk prevention culture.
(See the campaign website: www.healthy-workplaces.eu/fr/hw2012 ).
This Agency took place on 11 and 12 November 2013 in Bilbao at the closing (“Summit”) of this campaign, to draw the balance sheet.
This campaign broke the record audience, with 87 official participants.

Its key conclusions can be summarized thus :
Vulnerability of SMEs :
SMEs employ 66% of European employees, but they account for 82% of accidents at work and about 90% of fatal accidents
According to the Spanish statistics for 2009, SMEs with between 10 and 50 employees have a frequency of accidents with a stoppage of 1.6 times and a frequency of fatal accidents 1.7 times higher than the national average. On the other hand, large establishments with more than 1,000 employees only register a work injury frequency equal to 0.23 times the national average and a fatal accident frequency equal to 0.16 times the average
This shows that large institutions have the means to have effective prevention policies, which are lacking for SMEs.

Emerging risks :
There is a significant increase in new risks:
Stress at work (40% of the hours of work stoppage in Germany)
Fatal road accidents caused by stress and fatigue (in Germany 50% of fatal accidents recorded, in France around 30%)
Development of occupational skin diseases (in Germany, from 2006 to 2011: 65% increase in registered skin diseases)
The conclusion is that while the Directions are now well prepared to deal with the usual occupational risks, they lack guidelines to deal with these new risks.

Young Workers :
Lithuanian statistics show that the incidence rate of worker injuries among young workers is 3 to 5 times higher in their first year of work than in the fifth.
The general conclusion is that safety must be taught in schools, even from primary school.

Interesting experiences :
In Ireland, a group of 14 farmers specializing in milk production, alarmed by a recent accident and learning that the agricultural work mortality in this country was about ten times higher than the average More and more sophisticated, presence of children and old people in farmyards) met to develop a “safety” culture specific to their profession, with excellent results.

In Spain, a service company has developed a culture of safety through strict written instructions, for the benefit of its employees and customers.

In Turkey, a huge car manufacturing plant (6,000 employees) has developed a safety culture based on the following principles:
Groups of about ten workers working in the same sector. Each group has a “security captain” who, in addition to his work, ensures compliance with safety instructions by his comrades. In turn, each worker occupies the function of “captain of security” for a week
Random inspections of particular areas of the factory without prior warning, in order to monitor the correct application of the safety principles
Any abnormal situation is photographed from a smartphone or a mobile phone, this picture being immediately sent to the “security” service
From 2006 to 2011 the frequency of accidents with stop could be reduced by a factor of 15!

In Denmark, in a major hospital group, spectacular results have resulted from the implementation of a policy of systematic courtesy and kindness in all human relationships …

Intervention of the Union of European Trade Unions (ETUC)
ETUC is concerned about the slowdown in the work of the European Commission on occupational safety and health. She asked the representatives of the Commission present at the meeting to speed up the establishment:
the Directive on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) , which is now growing Sonten
the long-awaited update of the list of carcinogens , knowing that Europe is estimated at approximately 160,000 deaths caused by occupational cancers
According to the Commission representatives present, this situation should be resolved by the end of 2015.

New European campaign 2014/2015

This new campaign is due to start in April 2014. It will focus on the management of stress and psychosocial risks at work , which is now growing, taking into account:
Increased demands on productivity and competitiveness
The fear of lay-offs among a majority of workers

See his preliminary site (in English)

Http://www.healthy-workplaces.eu