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This years European Week for Health and Safety at Work was Safe Start, raising awareness of the risks young workers face.
Every year the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, holds a themed week, designed to raise a specific issue of health and safety that is a cause for concern. It is always good to report on these weeks in Toolbusiness+Hire. Some topics covered are of immediate interest to our readership because they deal directly with tool related topics, but others are still relevant as they deal in general with employment issues that can reflect on legislation, and often act as a barometer for how employment law is heading.
The European Week for Safety and Health at Work took place from 23 - 27 October 2006 with the aim of ensuring that young people have a Safe Start to their working lives. Because so many young workers are apprentices, trainees or shopworkers this topic is one that should be of interest to any readers who operate in the construction industry or are retailers, which is to say most of Toolbusiness+Hire’s subscribers.
Across Europe, 18 to 24-year-olds are at least 50% more likely to be injured in the workplace than more experienced workers. Behind the statistics are harrowing stories, of young people having to live with the consequences of accidents and damaged health for the rest of their lives, or dying when they had so much of their lives ahead of them.
“Employers need to do more to protect young workers, and young people need to be more aware of health and safety issues when they enter the world of work,” says Jukka Takala, Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. “We can’t just leave it until young people have already started work to teach them about health and safety. We have to reach them early - while they are still at school or college - so that they get used to a culture of risk prevention.”
The Safe Start campaign culminated in the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, with a range of awareness-raising activities being organised in over 30 countries. Thousands of national-level events, coordinated by the Agency’s network of national focal points, took place across Europe to bring the campaign’s key messages to life in all organisations, large and small, public and private.
There are several reasons for singling out young workers for special attention. They may lack experience, physical and psychological maturity and awareness of health and safety issues. They may need skills and training. They may not be aware of their employers duties as well as their own rights and responsibilities, and they may not have the confidence to raise health and safety issues.
The incidence rate of non-fatal accidents at work per 100,000 workers is over 40% higher for 18-24 years olds than the total workforce, this is true of all employment sectors. Workers in the same age group suffer around 714,000 accidents at work that are serious enough to keep them of work for three days or more and about 430 workers in Europe under 25 are killed each year according to EU statistics.
The European Agency gives a couple of case studies that make for rather alarming reading, for example that of an 18 year old apprentice who became engulfed in flames in an explosion, while he was helping his manager empty a mixture of petrol and diesel from a dustbin into a disposal tank. The petrol was ignited because a nearby flue pipe was attached to an active gas boiler. The young man was learning the trade, totally dependant on his employer to ensure his health and safety. Four days later he died. The company that employed him believed that health and safety was a matter of the employees’ own common sense.
The campaign places a lot of emphasis on training, education and information - a whole section of the website is given over to what training schools can give to children to raise their awareness before they enter a place of work. However it is no less important for employers to be aware of what factors may need particular attention when dealing with younger members of staff. This includes making a full risk assessment and identifying hazards that take into account not only young people on the full time staff, but those working at weekends, school holidays and those on vocational training or work experience placements. It is also important to make sure anyone responsible for the supervision of younger members of staff knows what is required. Of course one of the most important things an employer can do is make sure young employees are fully aware of the risks they face and the health and safety procedure required for any given situation and making sure they do not, for example, use any potentially dangerous equipment until they are fully aware of any risks it presents and how to avoid them. In the end one of the key elements of health and safety is training, given at every stage, before starting work and at each progression in the work place.
But of course the responsibility doesn’t just fall on employers, the campaign is very focused on empowering young people by making sure they are aware of health and safety issues. Employers are encouraged to listen to young employees, who are in turn are being taught to be more aware. This includes using the right protective equipment and clothing, knowing what to do in an emergency, reporting any accidents or any early signs of problems, following advice, and generally cooperating with all health and safety procedures.
The bottom line is that there is currently a problem and there is no one group, employers, staff or teachers who can solve it alone, but a combined effort, at what essentially boils down to just being aware, can make a real difference.
As with so many elements of health and safety anyone who already sticks to rules and guidelines shouldn’t need to change what they do too much, but no one can know all the potential pit falls, so campaigns like Safe Start are always a useful source of further knowledge.
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Airstream Communications