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Background :
Director General Mr Jens JENSEN
Danish National Working Environment Authority Denmark covers just 43,000 km2 with a populations of 5 million.
The workforce is 3 million .
Conclusion 1 :
The demand for transparency on the health and safety standards both from enterprises and governments is becoming increasingly urgent due to pressure from the global economy, consumers, and at political level. |
World Trade Agreements and the WTO has highlighted a call from consumers and politicians for transparency regarding the conditions under which products are produced. Not only on environmental issues but also on labour market standards. Good standards on health and safety at the workplace are increasingly becoming investments in competition and in globalisation.
Conclusion 2 :
Transparency can be used as a positive strategic tool in order to achieve improvements in health and safety standards, both at enterprises and in government bodies. Transparency combined with quantified objectives is effective. Only what is measured is managed. |
One of the main priorities in Europe , Denmark and in China is employment. Europe has set up goals to increase the employment rate from 63 per cent in 1997 to 70 per cent in 2010.
In a modern and complex employment strategy there are many different stakeholders. There are different public authorities involved. At government level – the Ministry of the Economy, The Ministry of Employment and the Ministry of Enterprises and the Ministry of Education. There are also local and regional authorities. Last but not least in Denmark and Europe the labour market organisations – representatives of the employers and employees are key stakeholders in a successful strategy. Transparency is a very effective tool when monitoring if the common goals and objectives are being met in the Member States.
In 2002 Europe developed a new European Strategy on Safety and Health at work in parallel with the employment strategy. In spite of the fact that we in Europe and Denmark have had legislation for many years, the absolute figures for occupational accidents and diseases are still high.
One of the cornerstones in the new strategy is a recommendation to the Member States to set up quantitative national objectives in order to achieve a reduction in the rate of the fatal and non-fatal accidents, as well as a reduction in the rate of recognised occupational diseases.
In 1995 the Danish Government, supported by the Danish Parliament, set up a national action programme for a clean working environment by the year 2005. The action programme was developed after a debate phase with the general public and in consultation with the labour market organisations. It set up 7 cross-sectoral and very broadly defined visions aiming to minimise or avoid altogether accidents at work or occupational diseases before the year 2005.
Parallel to the launching of the European strategy in spring 2002, the Danish Government set up a tripartite committee with the labour market organisations and the Working Environment Authority with the aim of prioritising the action programme on the most urgent risk factors needing special attention and of setting up quantitative objectives to be fulfilled before the end of 2005.
The quantitative objectives to be reached before the end of 2005 are:
• Fatal/serious accidents – 15 per cent decrease
• Heavy lifting – 15 per cent decrease
• Monotonous, repetitive work – 10 per cent decrease
• Psycho social risk factors – 5 per cent decrease
Making these priorities and setting up these quantified objectives has been possible only because it has been done in collaboration with the labour market organisations. They have agreed on the priorities of the government initiatives, but they are also expected to take preventive actions themselves at enterprise level.
Conclusion 3 :
Health and safety at the workplace has to be an integrated part of a sustainable employment strategy. Poor health and safety standards reduce productivity, cost a lot of resources, and create social exclusion. |
Poor and unsafe working conditions are estimated to cost the EU economy some 3 per cent of GNP a year, with some 500 million workdays lost. One of the principles in the Employment Strategy is that we not only want to create more jobs – but also better jobs.
The success of employment policy depends on the overall economic and social policy – and vice versa. The effectiveness and productivity of the workforce depends on well-designed social security
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