Start of European Health & Safety Week Today

Today marks the start of European Health & Safety Week. The poster to the left is from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work which is co-coordinating activities across Europe.

In Britain the Health & Safety Executive is taking the lead (see here). The theme for the next 2 years is risk assessments.

Don’t forget that this Wednesday is National Inspection Day – inspect your workplace for hazards.

The advice below is from the UNISON web site safety pages on risk assessments.

No one should be put at unnecessary risk at work. UNISON believes that work related deaths, injuries, ill-health, and “accidents” are not acceptable.

Your employer has a responsibility to ensure that your work does not cause you harm. Not only is it the right thing to do – it’s the law.

UNISON is campaigning to ensure that every employer carries out proper risk assessments and keeps those risk assessments under review and up to date. The safety of staff, visitors and the public depends on it. So we’re taking part in this years Health and Safety Campaign, are you?

Health and Safety Week 2008

This years Health and Safety Week and will part of a two year campaign on risk assessment. The campaign is aimed at a wide range of stakeholders, including: employers, workers and safety reps; and is intended to promote the benefits of completing and implementing a risk assessment. The campaign seeks to demystify the risk assessment process to show that risk assessment is not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic, nor a task only for experts.

The campaign also aims to raise awareness on this issue, provide information and practical advice, encourage activities that have a positive impact in the workplace, and identify and recognise good practice.

Whilst the campaign is a rolling programme, the European Health and Safety Week for 2008, when much of the focus will take place, begins on 20 October.

Risk Assessments are the foundation to health and safety – so get involved!

UNISON encourages all branches to take part in this campaign to ensure that risk assessments are in place to protect all workers. Risk assessments are the foundation to health and safety, so start thinking about how your branch can get involved. What hazards cause concern in your workplace? Are there risk assessments in place, are they any good, and are they applied? Does the accident, sickness absence, or occupational health statistics suggest otherwise? What tasks haven’t been assessed? Consider asking your employer to jointly review the risk assessments, and/or conduct new ones.

Alternatively, you may want to organise workplace safety inspections or conduct a series of risk and body mapping as a first step towards identifying areas where a review of risk assessments might be needed. Once you’ve identified a source of concern, UNISON produces a range of topical information which give guidance on various hazards and how they should be tackled.

Of course, if you’re aware of a serious health and safety concern now, don’t wait until October. Raise the issue with your local safety rep now.Resources There are a number of materials and resources that will be of use to branches. UNISON has guidance on risk assessments; workplace safety inspections; risk and body mapping.

You can access all of these and our A-Z list of topical guidance from the dropdown menu on our homepage.The latest issue of our newsletter for safety activists, Health & Safety Organiser, Issue 57 takes a detailed look at the campaign and what UNISON branches and safety activists can do. It's out now to all UNISON safety activists.A new campaign poster and leaflet for members and non-members will also shortly be available - watch this space!