EU-OSHA Annual Report Now Published

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has published its annual report for 2008, warning that in the current economic downturn, European organisations cannot afford to forget workplace safety.

Writing in the annual report, the director of EU-OSHA, Jukka Takala, argues that companies should think carefully before cutting back on their investment in occupational safety and health, in the face of global recession.

He says, “There is no point in making short-term gains at the cost of long-term problems. All of our work shows that the more healthy workplaces are, the more productive they also tend to be.”

The report focuses on the Agency’s key achievements in 2008, including its Healthy Workplaces campaign on risk assessment, which is the cornerstone of health and safety management. The campaign has so far involved more than 7000 participants in seminars, training events and workshops, with some two million print publications being distributed.

In addition, with the launch of the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks, 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 that of emerging chemical risks with a new report finalised, the last in a series of flagship reports which have also examined physical, psychosocial and biological risks.

Finally, the report sets out the Agency’s Strategy for 2009 to 2013, which was agreed in 2008, outlining 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.

Click the pic above to go to the E-Library Database and download the annual report.

The Agency has also published its Annual Management Plan & Work Programme 2009 which can be downloaded here

Source: EU-OSHA

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