At the end of June 2015, the European Agency for Safety & Health at Work (EU-OSHA) submitted findings from the second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2) to the European Parliament in Brussels, revealing that psychosocial and muscoskeletal risks pose the greatest risk to safety and health in the European workplace.

The survey drew on responses collected from nearly 50,000 workplaces in 36 countries, including the 28 Member States, with Luxembourg's sample consisting of 752 institutions. The results were made available through the online dashboard, providing an important resource for policy makers, researchers and practitioners.

Survey questions were addressed to individuals at organisations responsible for occupational safety and health (OSH) as a means of determining how these entities, including small businesses of 5 to 10 employees, manage OSH, in particular with regard to new and emerging issues such as psychosocial risks. Respondents identified major risk factors within their organisation and how they manage them, crucially providing information on why they manage these risks as well as the main difficulties which deter them from making assessment risks in the workplace.

"The ESENER-2 survey gives an overview of how health and safety is managed in reality in European workplaces," explained MEP Ole Christensen, European Parliament rapporteur in the strategic EU framework regarding health and safety at work (2014-2020). "The results are very useful for policy makers at the national as well as European level, especially as they clearly show that many improvements are possible in the field of health and safety at work".

The most commonly reported risk factor was the difficult confrontation of customers, patients and students, found in 69.8% of institutions in Luxembourg, against 58% in th 28 EU Member States. This was reported to reflect in part the continual growth of the service sector.

Across all business sectors, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) brought on by tiring or painful positions (60%) and repetitive hand or arm movements (52.8%) were frequently found.

It was also found that 94.4% of establishments which perform risk assessments considered them as a useful means of managing safety and health in the workplace, whilst a signficant difference was found at the national level between the share of companies which run risk assessments themselves and those who locate this service externally, at 66% and 16% respectively.

"The institutions that did not perform regular risk assessments cited the main reason as the already established knowledge of risks and hazards (83.1% in Luxembourg) and the absence of major problems (84.7%)," noted Christa Sedlatschek, Director of EU-OSHA.

Certain psychosocial risks were also perceived to be more difficult to treat than others. For organisations in the Grand Duchy, 47.4% felt pressure due to time constraints and 10.9% cited job insecurity, whilst the European average stood at 15.6%.

An additional key finding reported that a strong indicator of both quality work and psychosocial risk management was related to the participation rate, both formal and informal, of employees. In 64.2% of Luxembourg institutions, workers played a role in the design and implementation of psychosocial risk prevention measures. In the last three years, the working system was reorganised in 43.7% of consulted establishments in order to reduce requirements and professional pressure, and in 54.7% of cases, confidential support meetings were offered to employees.

In 88.5% of Luxembourg institutions and 86.2% across the EU, compliance with legal obligations was cited as the major justification for OSH management, with its legal framework based in the European Directive 89/391/CEE on Safety and Health at Work.

This was followed by meeting the expectations of workers and their representatives at 83.7%, the reputation of the organisation at 79.4%, and the fines imposed by the labour inspectorate at 73%.

An important detail in the ESENER-2 survey is also understanding if companies perceive the management of safety and health as a burden, of great interest for ongoing programmes such as REFIT1. In terms of OHS legal obligations hindering health and safety management, results diverged at the European level, ranging from 67.5% in Italy to 14.6% in Lithuania. Luxembourg stood at 30.4%. As all EU Member States are subject to the same legislation, these figures are indicative of different situations encountered at the national level and highlight the important of national legislation, support structures and other resources.

 

Photo by Shutterstock