the safe and healthy workplace

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the safe and healthy workplacea social
responsibility and an economic necessity

• Sevilla
• 28 November 2006
• Ir. Kris De Meester
• Adviser health and safety affairs

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VI JORNADAS EUROPEAS SOBRE SEGURIDAD Y SALUD EN
EL TRABAJO

• Sevilla
• martes, 28 noviembre 2006
• Ir. Kris De Meester

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Megatrends in the world of work

• Restructuring of economy and politics
  "Competitive Europe"
• Competitive world economy and increased
  productivity with restructuring of organizations
  and management
• Outsourcing, focus on core-business, downsizing,
  delocalisation
• Work intensity, stress,
• ? The world becomes "smaller" (a global village
  in a "global" world)
• New technology and new production "Innovative
  Europe"
• Increasing global automation and change of
  manufacturing industries towards a service
  production
• ? New production models and job contents
• Demographic shift "Graying Europe"
• Rapid ageing of work force, changing age
  attitudes and demands on work ability and
  competence
• ? Challenges facing young workers and immigrants

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Megatrends in the world of work

• Geographic shift Migrating Europe
• Workers from new EU member states,
• ? Language barriers, training
• Social change Conscient European Generation"
• From a work life-centred society toward a
  "multi-society"
• Periods of employment, unemployment, training,
  leisure, family life and individual development
  vary throughout the whole life course.
• ? Employee participation and a new
  citizenship is growing
• ? Balancing work and family life
• Growing role of media "Attention Economy and
  Citizens Europe"

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Working Conditions in Europe
What workers say
first findings (nov. 2006) of
the fourth European Working Conditions Survey
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Components of work satisfaction
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Work intensity on the increase
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Health and work

• 15 of workers are not well informed about risks
  linked to their work
• 28 report that their health and safety is at
  risk because of their work
• Exposure to risks have remain stable at the best
• 35 report that their work affects their health
• MSDs, stress, fatigue are the most reported
  health problems

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Exposure to physical risks

• stable or on the increase

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Impact of work on health
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Doing the same job at 60

• Yes I think so ...

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Political and social reaction

• Political answers, solutions
• Legislation? (NOK)
• Negation ostriches (NOK)
• Strategy approach embedded in global
  socio-economic strategy of employment, welfare
  and productivity (GDP factor) priority n 1
  (OK)
• Lisbon agenda driver and target
• Do not isolate one element
• For some politicians, NGOs, Deus ex machina
  corporate social responsibility
• What about
• Social market economy
• Sustainable development
• Business ethics
• Corporate governance
• Consultation and self regulation

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C.S.R.

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Not a new concept
• Revival - response to scandals NGO
• Presented as a Business ethical approach /
  stakeholder management
• CSR/business ethics includes
• Social workers (employment)
• Safety health workers, neighbours
• Environmental sustainability - community
  future generation
• Philanthropy - local community corporate
  citizenship
• Supply chain suppliers, contractors

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CSR Business Case for Europe

• CSR mainly in big companies
• Objective EU to engage also CSR in SMEs
• Part of Lisbon strategy CSR means better
  business
• CSR business case
• Not philanthropy but business ethics (workers,
  supply chain,)
• CSR is profitable
• Self-enlightened interest
• On voluntary basis
• Regulation? - ISO? - Legislation?

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CSR from OSH point of view

• OSH management (systems)
• Preventative safety and health culture
• Increase general awareness, knowledge and
  understanding of hazard, risk and prevention
• Increase responsibility of employers, managers
  and workers

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ILO 2003 conclusions

• The fundamental pillars of a global OSH strategy
  include the building and maintenance of a
  national preventative safety and health culture
  and the introduction of a systems approach to OSH
  management.
• A national preventative safety and health culture
  is one in which the right to a safe and healthy
  working environment is respected at all levels,
  where governments, employers and workers actively
  participate in securing a safe and healthy
  working environment through a system of defined
  rights, responsibilities and duties, and where
  the principle of prevention is accorded the
  highest priority.
• Building and maintaining a preventative safety
  and health culture requires making use of all
  available means to increase general awareness,
  knowledge and understanding of the concepts of
  hazards and risks and how they may be prevented
  or controlled.

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OSH management
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OSH policy and management

• No corporate manslaughter
• Economic necessity
• Essential for producing/delivering high quality
  products and services
• Human cost of accidents and diseases
• Economic cost (medical treatment,
  accidents/disease insurance, absenteeism, loss of
  time/production, work-incapacity, loss of
  expertise, replacement cost, etc.)
• Continuity of business
• Productivity
• Retain workers
• Company image
• Brand image
• Iceberg model for accidents also applies to cost

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The business benefits of OSH

• Business to understand and accept the benefits of
  OSH
• OSH - an integral part of effective business
  management
• OSH - an enabler and not a hindrance
• Building a culture of continuous improvement
• Systematic approach to OSH management at company
  level can help establishing a preventive culture
• Links with the EU promotion of corporate social
  responsibility and the Lisbon agenda

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OSH policy and management

• Different strategies possible

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OSH policy

• Employer is responsible for working out and
  implementing the policy
• Integrated policy!
• Strategy has to be implemented in every segment
  of the company en has to be integrated in the
  management
• Focus on risk prevention
• Includes technique, organisation,
  working-conditions, social factors, environment
• Multidisciplinary approach
• Tailor made OSH management rather than standards
• Dynamic Risk Assessment

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Beyond health and safety

• Safety at work
• Health protection
• Hygiene at work
• Psychosocial aspects (stress, harassment,
  violence)
• Ergonomics
• Embellishment of the workplaces
• Well-being at work
• The healthy workplace

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Dynamic Risk Assessment

• Dynamic system for the management of risks
• concept
• Risk analysis
• identification of dangers
• determination of risks
• evaluation of risks
• Preventive measures (prevention principles)
• Collective measures, individual measures or both
• Long term strategic prevention plan
• Yearly action plan

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Other directives
Framework directive
Psychosocial aspects
Technical safety
Health
Hygiene
Ergonomics
Processes Risk assessment Prevention Health
Surveillance
Prevention services
Worker information and training
Training center
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Preventive measures

• 1. Avoid risks
• 2. Avoid damage
• 3. Limit damage
• Preventive measures apply to
• organisation methods of work and production
• conception of the workplace
• conception and adaption of the workpost
• choice and usage of work equipment and chemical
  substances
• risks arising from chemical, biological and
  fysical agents
• collective and individual protection, and
  working-clothes
• health and safety signals
• heath surveillance
• psychosocial workload
• competence, training and information of workers,
  including proper instructions
• coordination on the workplace
• emergency procedures incl. first aid, fire
  protection, and evacuation

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Focus on prevention

• 3 levels
• Organization as a whole
• Team/division
• Individual
• Primary prevention
• Human based measures (awareness raising ,
  job-information and job-training of management
  and workers, working conditions, job content,
  teambuilding,...)
• Organizational measures (company culture,
  prevention services, flexibility, control,
  communication, consultation,...)
• Technical measures (working environment,
  workplace design,...).
• Secondary prevention (support structures,)
• Tertiary prevention (remediation, help,)

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Prevention principles

• Avoid, eliminate risks
• Evaluate and limit those risks that cannot be
  eliminated
• Attack risks at the source
• Replace dangerous products by other not dangerous
  or less dangerous products
• Collective protection before individual
  protective equipment
• Adapter the work to the person ( ergonomics)
• Organisation of training
• Proper instructions.

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Prevention measures

• Be creative!

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Employer not alone

• Designated worker(s) (prevention officers)
• OSH-services
• Management chefs
• Workers workers representatives and individual
  workers

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Preventative culture
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In general

• Development and strengthening of a preventive
  culture must be a central element of any strategy
  aiming at improving occupational safety and
  health
• Development and strengthening of a preventive
  culture achieving better OSH performance by
  fostering changes in behavioural patterns
• Governments
• Employers
• Workers
• OSH-Experts
• Financial world
• Students, young people
• ALL PEOPLE
• Cannot be achieved through legislation !

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Strategy

• Strategy to promote a preventive culture must
• address all parts of society
• go beyond the workplace and the working
  population
• should help create a general culture that values
  health and risk prevention

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Worker as individual

• Pay attention to the workers as individual in his
  work environment
• Psychosocial workload
• Stress
• Harassment, violence
• Home Work trajectory
• Health
• Alcohol and drugs
• Exercise
• Nutrition
• Quality of sleep
• Socio-economic status of worker is determining
  factor
• For health
• Also for work attitude
• Focus on social inclusion through education,
  assistance,)

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Quality

• Global, integrated HR approach (4 fields to take
  into account)
• Job content
• Job environment (OSH)
• Job conditions (working hours, wages,)
• Job relations (colleagues, supervisors,
  management, clients,)
• Job satisfaction
• Set expectations form employers and workers side
• Overall situation is good (large majority of
  workers are happy with an in their job)
• Company culture
• Encourage job mobility (internal or external)

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Increase OSH knowledge and awareness
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Education and training

• Many accidents and incidents can be blamed on a
  lack of knowledge or inadequate awareness of the
  risks among people performing work or people
  directly involved, such as supervisors
• Major improvements in safety performance can
  therefore be achieved by more and better staff
  training which focuses on safety, with the aim of
  raising levels of knowledge and skills and
  generating safety awareness.Good training and
  sound instructions, especially for dangerous
  work, are therefore of major importance in terms
  of preventing accidents and incidents
• That is why particular attention needs to be
  given to training and instruction and to proofs
  of the required safety qualifications for
  operational staff, their supervisors and the
  appointed safety officers

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Education and training

• Education and training policies (Member-State
  responsibility) play an important (even crucial)
  role in strengthening the prevention culture
• Start early it is beneficial to start education
  valuing a general culture of health and risk
  prevention at an early age
• All education an training!
• all future workers
• all future managers
• all future policy makers
• etc.

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Education and training

• Learning programmes should
• adequately integrate aspects relating to safety
  and health and
• be up-to-date and correspond to workplace
  realities and challenges.

• Further progress at Member State level is needed
• Council ( AC) might act as a catalyst by means
  of a resolution/recommendation

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Conclusions
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To do at government level

• Better regulation
• Take this serious
• Limits to what can be achieved through regulation
• Is not deregulation, all will benefit of it
• Embedded in a global socio-economic strategy
  (Lisbon agenda)
• Complement with other instruments (agreements,
  market driven systems,)
• Responsibility
• Making/changing regulations is not enough
• From the cradle to the grave approach
• Implementation ! (not just on paper)
• One level playing field
• Regulation that allows employers (and workers) to
  take up their responsibility
• Mechanism to short-circuit employers that do not
  assume responsibility

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Mainstreaming

• Health into OSH
• Workplace health promotion
• Smoking ban
• Soft-drinks ban
• Fat ban in company restaurants (balanced, healthy
  food)
• Attentions hypertension
• World sleep day (21 Mars)
• OSH into Health (less developed)
• General medical check-up by OSH-services
• Occupational diseases
• Revalidation/reintegration after accident/disease
• Education into OSH
• OSH into education
• Integration of health ( safety) aspects in
  education systems (curricula,)
• Partnership with industry !!!

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To do at industry level

• Federations
• Take control over the agenda
• Assume leadership (captains of industry)
• Offensive or opportunistic strategy
• (voluntary) Agreements at national, regional and
  branche level
• Exchange of good practice
• Collaboration with education, health,
• Companies
• Workers involvement (partnership set
  expectations)
• Further explore the healthy workplace

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A new industry vision

• To gain recognition of health and safety as a
  cornerstone of civilized and responsible
  companies and, with that, to achieve a record of
  workplace health and safety that leads the world!

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Levers for change

• Management systems/tools
• Activities to usefully support focus on
  prevention
• Awareness-raising actions targeting a large
  public
• Dissemination of good practices
• Use/search market driven instruments
• Contractor safety management systems and training
• Safety logbook
• Temporary workers management systems (risk
  activities)
• Be creative

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Practice what you preach!

• What has been build up over months and years can
  be destroyed in minutes!
• Practice what you preach
• Authorities
• Social partners
• Top management
• Operational supervisors
• Experts
• Stimulate safe behavior
• Discourage unsafe behavior
• Stress the success of safe behavior
• Reduce disadvantages of safe behavior

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THANK YOU !