BUSINESSEUROPE - Campaign for healthy workplaces 2008-2009

The European campaign on risk assessment was a decentralised two-year campaign coordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. The aim was to support employers, trade unions, workers, safety representatives, practitioners, preventive services, policy-makers and other stakeholders in combating workplace risks through risk assessment.

Risk assessment is one of the main elements of the EU framework directive on health and safety at work and is the basis of preventative action. It is also the first step towards risk management. Assessing risks in workplaces can be a challenge for companies, particularly for micro businesses and SMEs; the campaign therefore aimed to demystify the risk assessment process, raise awareness and allow exchange of experience on the topic.

As an official partner, BUSINESSEUROPE raised awareness of the campaign and the issue of risk assessment, and encouraged employers to get involved. This website provides information on the campaign and the involvement of BUSINESSEUROPE and its member federations.

Although the campaign has now finished, the work does not stop here! BUSINESSEUROPE and its member federations will continue to work on with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work to promote risk assessment, as part of a preventative approach and to develop tools to assist large, medium and small companies in the risk-assessment process.

"BUSINESSEUROPE is happy to be an official partner to the European Agency campaign.
Employers are dedicated to good management of health and safety risks at the workplace,
of which risk assessment is a fundamental pillar.
We will be pleased to contribute to the campaign to assist companies, particularly SMEs,
in analysing and combating risks at the workplace in non-burdensome way."

BUSINESSEUROPE has been working with the European Agency on Health and Safety to support them in the elaboration of an interactive risk assessment tool. This work was launched under the campaign and is ongoing. The tool is particularly intended for SMEs, to assist them in a practical way in developing risk assessment. BUSINESSEUROPE is supportive of this aim and will constructively assist the agency in developing and disseminating the tool. At a later stage, it could also be adapted for use in specific sectors.

BUSINESSEUROPE addresses closing conference of campaign

17 November 2009

Kris de Meester, Chairman of BUSINESSEUROPE Health and Safety Working Group, on 17 November gave a keynote speech (.pdf/87 kB) at the closing event of the European Agency for Health and Safety campaign on risk assessment. He highlighted companies commitment to a preventative health and safety culture and the role that risk assessment plays in this. He emphasised the need for the procedure to be simple, so that companies can concentrate on action to ensure health and safety at work, rather than being burdened with excessive administrative requirements. More pictures of the event here.

BUSINESSEUROPE organised a seminar on risk assessment on 20 April, attended by BUSINESSEUROPE member federations, individual companies, sectoral partners and other campaign partners.

The discussion focused on the usefulness of risk assessment as a basis for developing a common responsibility for dealing with health and safety risks at the workplace. Risk assessment should be a company-based instrument and a one-size-fits all approach is not appropriate. Participants also discussed the added-value of involving all levels of the company. Risk Assessment should be seen as a dynamic tool, evolving in line with changes within the company and changes regarding risks. The need for simple tools was highlighted, particularly in assisting SMEs to understand the added-value of risk assessment.

BUSINESSEUROPE receives official partner certificate from Commissioner Spidla

17 March 2009

BUSINESSEUROPE was awarded alongside 32 other official campaign partners, a certificate for its engagement in the risk assessment campaign.

A number of BUSINESSEUROPE member deferations were involved in the campaign at a national level, through a variety of activities. Some examples are listed below.

BEF-VBO, Belgium - A publication was sent to all member companies, aimed at CEOs rather than health and safety managers, emphasising the business case for risk assessment and including a risk-assessment tool for use by CEOs.

Confederation of Danish Industry - distributed a very instructive guide on CD ROM to assist companies to make a proper risk assessment of the workplace.

Employers’ Association of Slovenia - very active in disseminating publications among all member companies.

Confederation of Swedish Enterprise - Publication of guidelines for risk assessment and practical guidelines for SMEs.

Hellenic Federation of Enterprises - Working Group created aiming to come up with proposals and solutions relevant to Health and Safety issues including risk assessment.

Confederation of Danish Industry - organised meetings for local stakeholders.

FEB-VBO – organised a tour around Belgium to raise awareness on risk assessment.

Confederation of Danish Employers – organised two seminars at technical colleges focusing on effective risk management within engineering and construction respectively. This was part of a focus on risk management of apprentices working conditions.

Hellenic Federation of Enterprises - worked in close cooperation with authorities, trade unions and Hellenic Institute for Occupational Health and Safety on several events concerning risk assessment.

Employers’ Confederation of Latvia – organised an informative focus group meeting about the European campaign, in collaboration with the National focal point held by the State Labour Inspectorate and the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia.

Employers’ Association of Slovenia - organized different seminars for member companies on risk assessment.

BDA, Germany - addressed the national partnership meeting concerning the European campaign and is one of the partners of the national strategy on occupational health and safety, in which the systematic approach concerning occupational health and safety and risk assessment plays a major role.

BDI, Germany - worked in close cooperation with the Federal Agency for Occupational Health, Federal Committee for Hazardous Substances (AGS) and trade unions on the alignment of the risk assessment (98/24/EC) to the new requirements of the REACH regulation.

Confederation of Swedish Enterprise – worked in partnership on the campaign with trade unions and national government.

The closing event of the campaign took place on 16-17 November 2009 in Bilbao. You will find information related to the event in this website.

Promotion materials, logo and slogan, banners, fact sheets, magazine, etc. are available in this website