The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) has launched its new ‘Healthy Workplace’ campaign, designed to help reduce the number of work-related accidents and illness throughout the continent.
The Agency believes the first step to reducing the EU’s 167,000 work-related deaths a year lies in risk assessment, so the two-year campaign will focus on a simple five-step approach and encourage companies to carry out risk assessments on an ongoing basis.
The Health and Safety Executive is supporting the campaign, which was officially launched in London today (25 June), by Safety minister, Lord McKenzie, who said: “The great majority of harm can be prevented by taking practical precautions. A straightforward risk assessment is key to identifying those precautions.”
Added HSE chief executive, Geoffrey Podger: “Our message to employers is to keep your risk assessment simple and fit for purpose, make it a living document, and involve all the major people acting on it. Risk assessment is not a bureaucratic paperwork exercise; it is about practical steps you need to take to protect people and get the job done safely.”
As part of the campaign the HSE will, during European Week (20-24 October) be working with the EEF on a series of regional seminars, and in partnership with the TUC to deliver training events on risk assessment for safety representatives.
For more information on the campaign, please follow the link below.
http://osha.europa.eu/en/campaigns/hw2008/
