Health and safety strategies in Europe

This article outlines some of the findings of a European study set up to review the development of policy and strategy in health and safety in Europe between 1989 and 1995. The study received contributions from 13 member states of the European Union and focused on several indicators of health and safety strategies, including the extent and costs of occupational injuries and ill health, legislative arrangements, inspection, preventive services, arrangements for participative management of health and safety and insurance systems. Information concerning these indicators is reviewed against the background of economic developments in Europe during the same period. Because of the substantial difficulties in finding comparable data from different countries as well as reservations about the interpretation of such comparisons, the study sought to present a typology of systems and strategies rather than undertake a comparative review. In taking this approach the study demonstrates that there are a number of common trends apparent in the development of health and safety strategies as well as several economic, socio-political and legislative influences in common. At the same time, various models of insurance, participative management and preventive services in health and safety are illustrated, the development of all of which has been influenced by the economic trends of the 1990s. The study concludes that strategies in health and safety have undergone considerable change during the first half of the 1990s under the influence of the policies and instruments of the European Union. The effect of economic trends and the responses of business and Government serve to create a set of common influences in many European countries which have brought them closer together in terms of health and safety strategies. However, there are still very real differences between countries with regard to infrastructures and outcomes in health and safety. It is also observed that the implications for health and safety of many of the developments of the 1990s, such as the growth of the importance of SMEs in the economy, the reduction in public expenditure, flexible working and increases in precarious and illegal employment, as well as the ageing of the workforce and increased participation of women, are not adequately addressed by either the instruments of the European Union or the strategies of member states. In many respects the concept of 'health and safety' itself is a product of a previous era and does not end itself easily to emerging concerns of a post-industrial society. This represents a major challenge to all participants in the development of strategies to promote the well being of people at work in Europe in the future. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd