European safe maintenance drive launches in Britain

Date:

22 June 2010

Maintenance is integral to running a safe and reliable operation. Good planning and having the right skills and tools to do the job minimises the risk to workers and the public in any task from repairing a gas main to fixing a roof.

That's the message behind a new European initiative launched in Britain yesterday (Monday 21 June).

It is estimated that between 25 and 30 per cent of all manufacturing industry deaths in Britain result from maintenance activity, with common causes of fatalities and major injuries including falls from height and failure to properly isolate machinery so that it restarts while being worked on.

Many of these incidents are entirely preventable, and the initiative aims to raise awareness among businesses and their workers and to help them implement simple solutions.

The European Healthy Workplaces Campaign on Safe Maintenance 2010-2011 is coordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), and is being taken forward in Britain by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) along with organisations representing employers, workers and other interested bodies, including the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and EEF The Manufacturers' Organisation.

The British drive includes a new 'one stop shop' safe maintenance section of the HSE website. It features a quick and easy checklist to assess how good current maintenance practices are and offers pointers on how to improve. Free downloadable fact sheets, posters, and information on how organisations can get involved, are also available.

HSE Chair Judith Hackitt delivered the keynote speech at a launch event in London, attended by organisations including Jaguar Land Rover, The British Plastics Federation (BPF) and The Ladder Association, as well as trade unions. Delegates were given a checklist to plan how their organisations could get involved in the initiative to raise awareness and protect their workers.

Judith Hackitt said:

"Maintenance work is often seen simply as a disruption to normal service, but it is fundamental to the integrity of every system and to the health and safety of workers and the public.

"Workers are often under pressure to complete jobs quickly, but there is no excuse for putting themselves and others in danger by taking short cuts.

"All organisations, irrespective of their size and purpose, need to take the opportunity to look at how they plan and manage maintenance to see if improvements could be made. With planning and the right skills it can be done efficiently and will lead to increased production and better service delivery."

Satnam Sohal, Safety Manager West Mids Ops, Jaguar Land Rover, said:

"Maintenance workers are a key part of our workforce and maintenance is a function that contributes to business efficiency. This is an important initiative that will help to focus on and reinforce good working practices amongst this group of workers that are required to respond to both planned and reactive situations.

"This is an important message which should be communicated further through the motor industry and to the automotive sector to ensure a consistent approach and encourage benchmarking of sustainable good practice and progressive initiatives."

Chris Ball, Chairman, The Ladder Association, said:

"The Ladder Association fully supports this latest initiative promoting the need for timely, regular and proper maintenance in the workplace.

"As much of this maintenance is likely to be carried out using ladders and stepladders, it particularly welcomes the opportunity to reinforce the need for ladders to be used safely and competently through training."

Lynn Edwards, Chair, BPF Health & Safety Committee, said:

"Even though every business is legally obliged to ensure the health and safety of its employees and persons who come in to contact with their trade, it is easy to forget how intrinsic maintenance operations are to occupational safety and health.

"It is evident that the smallest failure can have drastic consequences; I see this campaign as a wake-up call to those businesses that look upon maintenance as a quick fix to getting their product out of the door.

"For those companies that realised and have benefited from an integrated management approach then this campaign will help solidify all of the hard work that they have done. We at the British Plastics Federation will continue to support and promote the campaign on Safe Maintenance."

For more information, visit the HSE Safe Maintenance website at www.hse.gov.uk/safemaintenance

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. The mission of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is to make Europe a safer, healthier and more productive place to work. EU-OSHA was set up by the European Union to help meet the information needs in the field of occupational safety and health. Based in Bilbao, Spain, the EU-OSHA aims to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information between all those involved in occupational safety and health issues. www.osha.europa.eu
3. The Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2010-2011, which is coordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and its partners in the 27 EU Member States and beyond, supports a wide range of activities at the national and European level that promote safe maintenance. It is backed by the EU Presidencies of Spain and Belgium in 2010 and of Hungary and Poland in 2011, by the European Parliament and the European Commission, and by the European Social Partners.
   
   Over the two years of the campaign, many events and activities will be organised within the Member States. One of the principal activities to support the campaign is the European Good Practice Awards that is organised specifically to identify examples of good practice related to safe maintenance.
   
   Other campaign highlights include two European Weeks for Safety and Health at Work, in October 2010 and October 2011. The European Weeks, which have been running since 2000, are annual events that promote improved safety and health in the workplace.
   
   Organisations of all sizes can take part in the campaign. For instance, they can organise or get involved in safety demonstrations, training events, seminars and workshops. For those pan-European or international organisations that want to be more substantially involved in the campaign and are able to multiply their efforts through their network members, there is also the opportunity to become an official EU Campaign partner. The previous Healthy Workplaces campaign attracted 43 multinationals, EU social partners, NGOs and others and EU-OSHA aims for a considerable increase in this figure for the current Safe Maintenance Campaign.
   
   The Campaign focuses on raising awareness of the risks associated with maintenance activities, promoting good practice and supporting EU and Member State policies, activities and initiatives in this area. The campaign also highlights the importance of maintenance (of plants, equipment, machines and workplaces) to eliminate workplace hazards, and to provide safer and healthier working conditions in workplaces throughout Europe. The ultimate aim, of course, is to help to reduce the number of people who are being hurt or are experiencing ill health as a result of inadequate maintenance or lack of maintenance, now and in the future.

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