Health and safety at work: the Committee of the Regions wants robust measures

28 November. Cutting occupational accidents in the European Union by 25% by 2012 is the stated ambition of the European Commission, and one supported by the Committee of the Regions opinion drafted by Uno Silberg (Estonia). To avoid this objective sounding like an empty slogan, the CoR has today called for a structured plan based on robust, harmonised standards that are backed up by experience on the ground.

"The strategic objective of cutting occupational accidents and illnesses by 25% is a good thing. However, just setting a target in this way may look like a mere slogan if the necessary evaluation criteria, such as measurability of targets, the need to reach agreement between relevant stakeholders, and the setting of a precise and realistic timetable, are not spelled out more clearly." In short, Uno Silberg, chairman of Kose municipal council (Estonia), feels that the Community strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work", presented by the European Commission, is based on good intentions, but these alone are not enough.

As the opinion adopted today by the Committee of the Regions states, improving health and safety at work is of the utmost importance in the European Union: occupational accidents and their knock-on effects, such as absenteeism and the need for medical treatment, are all factors that damage competitiveness. Moreover, dangerous working environments have become more complex, hence the need for better risk management before and after the event. Members of the Committee of the Regions have a particular awareness of this, as the authorities to which they belong are often large employers. With this in mind, the opinion calls for a specific, properly defined insurance scheme to provide an incentive "to increase safety at the workplace [and] to keep a record of all workplace accidents and cases of occupational illness".

To be sure, the Communication from the European Commission that is the subject of the Committee opinion is a strategy document. However, Uno Silberg does not believe that this is a reason to put up with the approximations it contains. "We need reliable statistics. But what do we read here? The European Commission is using very old data (1999) for a strategy that is supposed to last until 2012." In these circumstances, the methods used are not clear – there are as yet no evaluation criteria for damages taking into account all of the technical, psychological, cultural and economic aspects - and this has an impact on the concrete nature of the objectives: the opinion regrets the lack of shared values among the Member States that could serve as a basis for joint actions.

International standards for health and risk management exist. The rapporteur believes that it is time to use these throughout the European Union if we want to achieve the aims of a healthier, more productive working environment.