TITLE of the presentation Results of the "European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks" (ESENER 2009) William Cockburn European Risk Observatory, EU-OSHA Healthy Workplaces Good for you. Good for business Ljubljana, 25 th October 2010

New challenges are giving rise to ‘emerging risks’ - as highlighted in the Community strategies  Technological development  New tools and new ways of working, resulting especially from information and communication technology (ICT)  Tertiarisation  Service sector growth leading to ‘new’ health and safety risks, particularly psychosocial and musculoskeletal  Changes in employment  Shift towards outsourcing and increased specialisation, resulting in greater employment in SMEs  Demographic change  Ageing working population, increased (im)migration  Women at work  Increasing participation with specific risks and needs

ESENER: a new tool for EU-OSHA that complements the existing sources of information on OSH in Europe  Workers’ surveys  EU Labour Force Survey (Eurostat)  European Working Conditions Survey (Eurofound)  Registers  European Statistics on Accidents at Work (Eurostat)  European Occupational Diseases Statistics (Eurostat) We have a fairly good picture of some outcomes (injuries and concerns), less comprehensive for others (occupational diseases)  We have little information linking policies to outcomes (why are some effective and others not)

What do we want to achieve with ESENER?  Contribute to OSH strategies at national and EU level  As a potential source of indicators and a ‘snapshot’ against which to measure progress  Improve effectiveness of policy implementation  By identifying factors that encourage preventative measures and those that discourage or impede them  Provide better support for enterprises  By defining enterprises’ needs according to their characteristics – size, sector, location, age, etc.  Ensure more efficient communication  Through improved targeting of measures such as support, guidance, information, campaigns, etc.

ESENER specifications  Computer-assisted telephone interviews (“CATI”)  Native language interviewers based in each country  2 questionnaires  Most senior manager in charge of OSH (~25 min) + employee representative dealing with OSH (~15 min)  31 countries: 36,000 interviews  EU-27 + Croatia, Turkey, Norway and Switzerland  41 national versions of each questionnaire  Adapted for language and national OSH terminology  “Enterprises” = both public and private sectors  “Establishment level” = branch, rather than HQ

The universe EU-27 ESENER covers all establishments with 10+ workers Across all sectors, including public, except agriculture and fishing Establishments with 10+ employees 3 million enterprises 136 million employees

ESENER in Slovenia  Universe: 13,000 establishments, 611,000 workers  Establishments in sectors covered by the survey and with ten or more employees  Total number of interviews: 607  529 managers and 78 employee representatives  Fieldwork centre: RM Plus, Maribor  Interviewing from 26 th March to 26 th April 2009  Sampling matrix: Establishment proportional weight All 52%31%15%1% Slovenia 47%36%14%2%1%

What can we learn from an enterprise survey on OSH? The four survey ‘topics’: 1.Health and safety management  Risk assessment, management commitment, sources of expertise, advice and information, concern about risks 2.Management of ‘new’ psychosocial risks  Level of concern, measures taken, procedures in place 3.Key drivers and barriers  Why are there appropriate measures and procedures in some workplaces, but not others? 4.Workers’ participation  Formal or direct participation, impact and resources

1.The quality of health and safety management  Measures taken  Risk assessment: In-house or outsourced? On what occasions? What is checked? How is it followed up? How is its effectiveness monitored? Reasons for no checks  Management commitment  Existence of a documented policy and its perceived impact; reasons for not having a policy; and involvement of high-level and line managers  Sources of expertise, advice or information  Use of general OSH consultancy, OH doctor, or specialist (safety expert, ergonomist or psychologist); main sources of information; and visits from the labour inspectorate  Main concerns about workplace risks  Accidents, MSDs, stress, dangerous substances, noise and vibration, violence and bullying or harassment

Measures taken Workplaces checked as part of a risk assessment and whether checks are conducted in-house rather than contracted out % establishments and % establishments where checks are carried out

Measures taken Proportion of risk assessments that are normally contracted to external service providers % establishments Note: establishments where risk assessment or similar measures are carried out

Measures taken Risk assessments conducted in-house or contracted to external service providers by establishment size % establishments, EU27 Note: establishments where risk assessment or similar measures are carried out

Measures taken Risk assessments conducted in-house by establishment size in selected countries Risk assessment conducted only by own staff % establishments, EU27 Note: establishments where risk assessment or similar measures are carried out

Management commitment Prevalence of a documented policy, established management system or action plan on health and safety % establishments 33% of managers state that the policy has a large impact and 52% that it has some impact - 24% and 56% in Slovenia -

Management commitment Health and safety issues raised regularly in high level management meetings % establishments

Main concerns about workplace risks Level of concern about various health and safety issues % establishments, EU27

Sources of expertise, advice or information Use of OSH information from different bodies EESE EL SE DK IE EE RO AT DE EL LT EEES % establishments, EU27, lowest, average and highest 21% 29% 40% 55% 56% 58% 65%

2.How are the ‘new’ psychosocial risks such as stress, violence and harassment being managed?  Main concerns and causes  Level of concern about stress, violence and bullying or harassment; what are the principal risk factors (e.g. time pressure, poor communication, job insecurity, etc.)?  Measures taken  Ad-hoc or ‘reactive’ measures (e.g. training, change to work organisation, work area redesign, confidential support, changes to working time, conflict resolution)  Procedures in place  More formal or system based than ‘measures’, e.g. procedures to deal with stress, with violence or with bullying or harassment

Main concerns and causes Concern regarding work-related stress % establishments

Main concerns and causes Concern regarding violence or threat of violence % establishments

Main concerns and causes Concern regarding bullying or harassment % establishments

Main concerns and causes Concern about various psychosocial risk factors % establishments, EU27

Main concerns and procedures in place Concern about work-related stress and existence of procedures to deal with it % establishments

Main concerns and procedures in place Concern regarding work-related stress and existence of procedures to deal with it % establishments

Procedures in place Prevalence of procedures to deal with work-related stress, bullying or harassment, or work-related violence % establishments, EU27

Measures taken Employees informed about whom to address in case of work- related psychosocial problems % establishments

Measures taken Areas that are routinely checked as part of a risk assessment EE CY FI IE RO DK LT EE 97% 45% 60% 76% % establishments, EU27, lowest, highest and average Note: only establishments where risk assessment or similar measures are carried out

3.Drivers and barriers: what motivates managers to take action and what are the main obstacles?  Main reasons for addressing health and safety and for addressing psychosocial risks  Legal obligations, employee requests, client requirements, staff retention, absenteeism, labour inspectorate pressure, or productivity / performance reasons  Main difficulties in dealing with health and safety and with psychosocial risks  Lack of resources, lack of awareness, insufficient expertise, culture, sensitivity of the issue, or lack of technical support / guidance  Difficulty in tackling psychosocial risks compared with other health and safety issues

Drivers Major reasons for addressing health and safety % establishments, EU-27

Barriers Reasons for not having developed a policy, management system or action plan on health and safety? % establishments, all 31 and Slovenia Note: establishments with no documented policy on health and safety

Barriers Reasons for not carrying out risk assessments regularly % establishments, EU27 Note: establishments where risk assessment or similar measures are NOT carried out

Barriers Main difficulties in dealing with health and safety and with psychosocial risks % establishments, EU-27

4.Worker participation: what arrangements are in place and what effect does it have?  Formal representation  Participation through works council, trades union, health and safety committee or health and safety representative  Requests to deal with stress, violence and bullying or harassment  Direct participation  Provision of information to employees  Encouragement of workers to participate in implementation and evaluation of measures  Consultation on measures to deal with psychosocial risks  Impact of worker participation  Effect of formal and direct participation on management of health and safety and of psychosocial risks  Resources  Time, information, training, access to workers

Impact of worker participation Workplaces regularly checked for safety and health as part of a risk assessment: total and with employee representation % establishments, EU27

Direct participation Consultation of employees regarding measures to deal with psychosocial risks % establishments, EU27 Note: establishments that report having procedures and measures to deal with psychosocial risks

Key findings  The majority of establishments carry out workplace checks as part of a risk assessment or similar measure  But prevalence varies according to size of enterprise and country  Preventative health and safety culture  Involvement of top management and existence of documented policy, action plan or management system is very variable  In-house vs. outsourced risk assessment  Very different practices across Member States  Even the smallest firms can do RA without contracting experts  Concerns about the level of awareness of risks  If no risk is perceived, no preventive action is taken  Particularly among the smaller enterprises  Worker representation has a positive effect  Especially in SMEs and if the representation is ‘formal’

Conclusions  EU legislation has been successful in encouraging action at workplace level, but  Questions remain over the quality of those actions  Implementation is far from uniform  Legislation is necessary…  Main driver regardless of size is legal obligation  … but not sufficient  Main reason for not taking action is “we don’t have any major problems”, especially in the smaller enterprises, which actually have higher rates of accidents  Low awareness of risks  unlikely to take action  Important to produce information to emphasise that:  ‘Good health & safety is good business’  Worker participation makes a positive difference

Some ESENER results for Slovenia  ‘Mixed picture’ of OSH management  Above average on risk assessment; high level of medical checks and use of OH doctor, safety expert and general OSH. But low on other procedures, use of ergonomists and psychologists  Low management commitment to OSH  Few managers consider the OSH policy has a large impact; OSH is seldom discussed in management meetings; those without a policy say it is not necessary or of no benefit  Stress is the main concern regarding psychosocial risks  Above average concern for stress; very low for violence and harassment or bullying. Little action is taken on psychosocial risks, but employees are well informed  Average level of workers’ participation  27% have a health and safety representative; they give a generally positive picture but are not so involved in implementation and follow-up

Follow-up studies  EU-OSHA ‘secondary analyses’ reports (for publication 1 st quarter 2011)  OSH management success factors  Worker involvement  Management of psychosocial risks  Actions, drivers and obstacles for psychosocial risks  ‘Independent’ research  National authority initiatives  Social partners  Academic researchers

ESENER information resources  Printed publications  Descriptive overview report in English  Summary of main findings available in 25 languages  Online at  Printed publications for free download  ‘Mapping tool’ showing results by country, size and sector  Background information, including a technical report  Data repository at  Access to full micro-data for non-commercial use

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