European health and safety week focuses on ‘working together’

Safety & Health Practitioner

The European Week for Safety and Health at Work is focusing on spreading the message of “working together for risk prevention”. 

 

The awareness week, which runs from the 21 to 25 October, is co-ordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and is intended to improve the safety and health of Europe’s workplaces.

 

Activities have been organised across Europe to focus on encouraging managers to actively engage in risk reduction, and on encouraging workers, their representatives and other stakeholders to work with managers to reduce risks.

 

Director of EU-OSHA, Dr Christa Sedlatschek said: “The most effective results in managing and improving the safety and health of an organisation are found when workers and their representatives are actively engaged with management — leadership alone is not enough. 

 

“Enterprises with high worker participation combined with high management commitment are 10 times more likely to have a documented occupational safety and health (OSH) policy in place. The benefits of such an approach are enormous and include reduced business costs and increased productivity, fewer accidents and improved prevention and control of workplace risks.”

 

A campaign website has been set up to provide practical tools to help organisations to improve OSH management and worker participation. Case studies, checklists and a campaign toolkit are all available to provide examples of effective health and safety management. 

 

Airborne Environmental Consultants Ltd is hosting a series of free seminars between the 21 and 24 October in Trafford Park, Manchester, and on the 25 October in Rainham, Essex.

 

EU-OSHA has provided practical tools, preventive solutions and case studies, as well as the OSH campaign toolkit.