August 5, 2009—In the current economic downturn, European organizations cannot afford to forget workplace safety. That is the warning issued by the Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).
Writing in the agency’s annual report for 2008, Jukka Takala argues that companies should think carefully before cutting back on their investment in occupational safety and health (OSH), in the face of global recession. “There is no point in making short-term gains at the cost of long-term problems,” he writes. “All of our work shows that the more healthy workplaces are, the more productive they also tend to be.”
EU-OSHA’s key achievements in 2008 as highlighted in the report include the agency’s Healthy Workplaces campaign on risk assessment, which is the cornerstone of EU health and safety management. The campaign has so far involved more than 7,000 participants in seminars, training events and workshops, with some 2 million print publications being distributed.
In addition, with the launch of the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER), EU-OSHA has begun to identify what is currently being done, both in private- and public-sector workplaces, to deal with psychosocial and other risks.
Another focus in 2008 was emerging chemical risks, with a new report finalized, the last in a series of flagship reports that examined physical, psychosocial, and biological risks. Together, they establish the state of knowledge in these fast-changing areas, and highlight particular subjects that need to be the focus of research or policy-making.
Finally, the Agency’s Strategy for 2009-2013, which was agreed upon in 2008, sets out how EU-OSHA will work in the years ahead to reduce the high cost, both human and economic, of occupational accidents and work-related diseases. The strategy sets out a clear role for EU-OSHA in coordinating the many different efforts that take place in OSH around Europe, helping to identify common problems, and sharing information and good practice.
EU-OSHA Annual Report 2008: Health and Safety in Hard Times is available from the EU-OSHA Web site, as is a Summary, available in all EU languages.
