Be safe on your bike

Usage of motorbike increase drastically in summer, and in many cases the stationallity of this activity makes it even more dangerous.

The RoSPA in the UK has issue an interesting report that helps increase safety and assess risks.

First wave of HWI seminars over

From 19th April in Warsaw to 29th of June in Constanta, 9 HWI (Healthy Workplace Initiative) seminars were held in 6 new EU member states.

The seminars gathered over 1,000 atendees and were a great opportunity to share knowledge and experiences aimed at creating a "Healthy Workplace".

A second wave of seminars, with around 20 new events, will be organised from September to November in major cities in new EU member states (Siauliai, Alytus and Kedainiai in Lithuania already confirmed, and Sofia and Tallin very advanced).

Keep informed on dates and content of the seminars visiting the Healthy Workplace Initiative (HWI).

Pictures from seminars held in 2006 are available here.


More posts on HWI

Information for the aftermath of hurricanes and storms

In preparation for sumer and fall hurricanes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a series of resources aimed at ensuring safety of those working in the aftermath.

The types of materials are:

• QuickCards



• Fact Sheets



• Safety and Health Information Bulletins (SHIBs)

More information available here

Summer jobs: start a Future, don't end a life.

Young workers are a group with higher risks than average. This situation gets even worse during summer, when many young workers get their first working experience. Very frequently either for lack of knowledge or due to the will to cause a good impression in the company young workers put themselves under risk situations.

Canada's National Occupational Health and Safety Resource (ccohs) enfasizes the importance of the working conditions of the youngest and newest in the staff, and offers many resources and personalised answers on the subject.

Information from CCOHS

England to go smokefree as of 1st of July!

Following other countries in EU, England will have a law to protect employees and public in general from seconhand smoke effects.

Employers are asked to take a series of actions to be fully compliant with the law, such us:

• Display 'no-smoking' signs in smokefree premises and vehicles

• Take reasonable steps to ensure that staff, customers/members and visitors are aware that premises and vehicles are legally required to be smokefree
  

• Remove any existing indoor smoking rooms

• Ensure that no one smokes in smokefree premises or vehicles

• Remove ashtrays from smokefree areas

• Develop a smokefree policy in consultation with staff

• Offer staff training to help them understand the new law and what their responsibilities are

• Provide your staff and customers with support to quit smoking

We welcome this new law and encourage all employers and employees to respect it.

A site has been set to introduce this new law.

More NAPO films

Napo films have proved to be excellent tools to address different Occupational Safety and Health issues.





Now a new set of clips is available aimed at dealing with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). These clips are "multilingual" and "multicultural" so can be used in any country to face Occupational Safety and Health issues through a kind approach.

Worth sharing them!

Employment and working conditions of migrant workers

Eurofound has issued a report on Employment and working conditions of migrant workers.

This report confirms the evidence that immigrants play an increasingly important role in the labour markets of EU Member States

In most countries, migrant people face higher unemployment rates and tend to be segregated in unskilled occupations and exposed to higher risks of over-qualification. As immigrants today are often educated, this represents a significant waste of human capital, and a strong form of inequality.


However there is room for optimism, based on the improvement of immigrants employment and working conditions based on the raising of self-employment and assigment to more skilled jobs.

An interesteing report worth reading.