The EMHF is one of nine pan-European and multinational organisations who have signed up to be part of the first wave of official partners of the Healthy Workplaces campaign organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).
The campaign - which kicked off with a Safety at Work week this month - focuses on the evaluation of health and safety risks and aims at reducing work-related accidents and illnesses. Improvements in this area are urgently needed.
'It is estimated that every three-and-a-half minutes somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes,' said EMHF director Erick Savoye. 'Most of these will be men. That's why it's so important that the EMHF is part of the first wave of official partners for this campaign. And why it is so important that the campaign succeeds.'
EMHF president Ian Banks added: 'This campaign rightfully recognises the value of the workplace for communicating safety and health matters to all employees, and particularly to men who delay seeking professional opinion.'
The nine organisations are: Business Europe, the CEOC (Confederation of Inspection and Certification Organisations), the ESF (European Safety Federation), ETPIS (European Technology Platform on Industrial Safety), the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation), EuroCOP (European Confederation of Police), Ideal Standard International, Johnson & Johnson and the EMHF.
'We are very proud that so many renowned organisations decided to help us raise awareness on this important topic', Jukka Takala, Director of EU-OSHA said. 'Risk assessment is the key to preventing accidents and ill health at work. It is a legal obligation throughout Europe, but there are still companies that do not assess their risks regularly. This is reflected in figures of accidents and diseases at work which show that improvements are still needed, especially in SMEs.
'Partnerships with these nine organisations allow us to further increase the impact of our Healthy Workplaces campaign, already now one of the world’s largest information campaigns on occupational safety and health. And this is only the start since we are in touch with many more organisations that will join soon.'
The Healthy Workplaces campaign on Risk Assessment runs over two years (2008/2009) and is backed by the EU Presidencies, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European social partners. With the help of its network of national focal points in the 27 EU member states and accession countries, EU-OSHA will organise hundreds of events and activities throughout the campaign.
