H&S at work: Strategic Framework sets out EU objectives for 2014-2020
9 Jun 2014 01:13 PM
To better protect the
more than 217m workers in the EU from work-related accidents & diseases,
the European Commission has presented a new Strategic Framework on Health and
Safety at Work 2014 – 2020, which identifies key challenges and strategic
objectives for health and safety at work and presents key actions and
instruments to address these.
European Commissioner for
Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor
said: "Today we are renewing the Commission's commitment to
continuously upgrade people's working conditions in the EU. People have the
right to work without facing health or safety risks in the workplace. Yet every
year more than 3 million workers are victims of a serious accident at work in
the EU and 4000 die in workplace accidents. Work related accidents and diseases
affect all sectors and professions, irrespective of whether people are sitting
behind a desk, driving a truck or working in a mine or on a construction site.
They not only cause personal suffering but also impose high costs on companies
and society as a whole. This new Strategic Framework aims to contribute to
improving job quality and job satisfaction, while improving the competitiveness
and productivity of European companies, especially small businesses, and
reducing costs for social security systems."
The Strategic Framework
identifies three major health and safety at work challenges:
-
to improve implementation of
existing health and safety rules, in particular by enhancing the capacity of
micro and small enterprises to put in place effective and efficient risk
prevention strategies
-
to improve the prevention of
work-related diseases by tackling new and emerging risks without neglecting
existing risks
-
to take account of the ageing of
the EU's workforce.
The Strategic Framework proposes
to address these challenges with a range of actions under seven key strategic
objectives:
-
Further consolidating national
health and safety strategies through, for example, policy coordination and
mutual learning.
-
Providing practical support to
small and micro enterprises to help them to better comply with health and
safety rules. Businesses would benefit from technical assistance and practical
tools, such as theOnline Interactive Risk Assessment (OiRA), a web platform
providing sectoral risk assessment tools.
-
Improving enforcement by Member
States for example by evaluating the performance of national labour
inspectorates.
-
Simplifying existing legislation
where appropriate to eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens, while
preserving a high level of protection for workers’ health and
safety.
-
Addressing the ageing of the
European workforce and improving prevention of work-related diseases to tackle
existing and new risks such as nanomaterials, green technology and
biotechnologies.
-
Improving statistical data
collection to have better evidence and developing monitoring
tools.
-
Reinforcing coordination with
international organisations (such as the International Labour Organisation
(ILO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) and partners to contribute to reducing work
accidents and occupational diseases and to improving working conditions
worldwide.
The Strategic Framework
identifies instruments to implement these actions: social dialogue, awareness
raising, enforcement of EU legislation, synergies with other policy areas (e.g.
public health, education) and EU funds, such as the European Social
Fund (ESF) and the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme, are available to
support the implementation of health and safety rules.
The Framework will be reviewed
in 2016 in order to take stock of its implementation and to take into account
the results of the on-going comprehensive evaluation of the EU occupational
health and safety legislation which will be available by the end of
2015.
Background
Especially in the context of the
economic crisis, investing in a culture of risk prevention and promoting better
conditions at the workplace offers economic and social benefits, such as fewer
work-related mishaps, improved staff well-being and job satisfaction. Similar
rules across the EU also create a level playing field for all businesses within
the Single Market, addressing at the same time the need to prevent social
dumping.
The new Strategic Framework
builds on the 2007-2012 EU Occupational Health and Safety
Strategy, which was successful, in particular, in helping to reduce the
number of work accidents leading to absences of more than three days by 27.9%
in the EU. This Strategy provided a common framework for coordination and a
common sense of direction. 27 Member States now have a national OSH strategy,
adapted to the national context and key priority areas. The results of the evaluation of the 2007-12 OSH
strategy confirmed the value of an EU strategic framework for policy
action in the field of OSH and highlighted the need to review objectives,
priorities and working methods to adapt the EU policy framework to changing
patterns of work, and new and emerging risks.
The Framework takes account of
views expressed by the EU institutions and representatives from employee and
employer organisations, and the results of a 2013 public
consultation to gather insights oncurrent and future challenges in the
occupational safety and health area (IP/13/491) and of the views expressed at the Conference on Working
Conditions on 28 April 2014 which closed the cycle of
consultations.
For more
information
See MEMO/14/400
Strategic Framework on Health
and Safety at Work 2014-2020
László Andor's
website
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