In line with its mission of making Europe a safer, healthier and more productive place to work, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) strives to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information among all those involved in occupational safety and health issues. The agency has just launched its Healthy Workplaces Campaign for 2010/11.
The campaign seeks to promote safe maintenance as a key contribution to healthy workplaces. It focuses on raising awareness of the risks associated with maintenance activities, promoting good practice and supporting EU and member state policies and initiatives.
The agency has classified maintenance into two sections, mainly: preventive/ proactive maintenance, which is carried out to keep something functional and preventing it from failure; and corrective/ reactive maintenance, aimed at repairing something to get it working again.
Over the two years of the campaign, many events and activities will be organised within member states. One of the principal activities is the European Good Practice Awards that is organised specifically to identify examples of good practice related to safe maintenance. Other highlights include two European Weeks for Safety and Health at Work, in October 2010 and October 2011.
The ultimate praiseworthy aim of the campaign is to help to reduce the number of people who are injured or are experiencing ill health as a result of inadequate maintenance or lack of maintenance at workplaces.
In some European countries as many as 20 per cent of all workplace accidents are connected with maintenance and in a number of sectors over half of all accidents are maintenance related.
Fortunately, it appears that maintenance-related accidents in Malta do not result in as many fatal cases as in the rest of Europe. However, they still account for a substantial number of injuries and ill health. Therefore, also in Malta, the need to raise awareness about maintenance-related risks and to step up efforts to ensure proper maintenance. First and foremost, taking full account of the safety and health of workers, should be approached as an imperative priority.
The annual Education H&S Expo organised by the Health and Safety Unit within the School Resources Management Department of the Directorate for Educational Services, opened yesterday. Over three days, this initiative offers students an opportunity to experience and explore hazards in a controlled environment, surely a very effective manner in which to raise awareness, especially among the young.
The issue of poorly-managed maintenance activities and procedures should be fully addressed not only because they raise the risks of workplace accidents but also because the environment in which people work is a major influence on employee health. Research shows that healthy employees have a higher morale and are more productive.
Wherever the state of the maintenance process might still be, generally speaking, reactive it should be changed to being planned, scheduled and controlled. Of course, every business is different and one would need to think through the hazards and controls required in one's business according to its particular realities. Nonetheless, no stone should be left unturned to identify and eliminate hazards, ensure proper maintenance of plants, equipment, machines and workplaces, and provide safer and healthier working conditions in workplaces throughout.