2. International Activities
3.3.6 Great Britain
Contact: Brenda Stephens
E-mail: Brenda.Stephens@wales.gsi.gov.uk
1999 has seen the devolution of political power to the four separate regions of the UK. Scotland and Wales launched their Regional Assemblies in April and Northern Ireland followed in November.
All parts of the UK have issued public health strategies which recognise the importance of the workplace as a setting for health promotion.
There has been a major review of the working of the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act, which has led to the development of a new strategy for revitalising the health and welfare elements of the legislation.
Following from this, a new 10 year Occupational Health Strategy for Great Britain has been developed by the Health and Safety Executive. This calls for occupational health services to be pro-active and to include health protection and health promotion activity.
The delivery of these strategies is predicated on the formation of active partnerships and collaborative working, particularly within Government and between Government Departments at national, regional and local level. During 1999 there has been a growing emphasis on interdepartmental and interagency collaboration at National and Regional level. Also engagement with social partners such as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has been further developed.
Activities and public relations
The 3 major workplace health promotion campaigns viz. the Health at Work Award (England), Scotland’s Health at Work Award Scheme, the Corporate Health Standard (Wales) have continued to increase the number of workplaces addressing workplace health issues and the quality of activity undertaken.
In October the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) launched the fourth and final phase of its long running Good Health is Good Business campaign which aims to stop people being made ill by their work.
The first part of the Back in Work initiative was launched. It offered grants of up to
£50,000 for organisations to address back pain in the workplace, and 44 proposals were short-listed for funding.
The Healthy Hearts workplace health promotion research project with 40 SMEs in a deprived area of South Wales is now progressing. It will conclude in June 2001.
The UK was well represented at the Bonn Workplace Health Conference.
Presentations were given by delegates from Bridgend County Council and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, both of these organisations having been cited as Models of Good Practice for workplace health promotion.
The UK National Contact office co-ordinated the development of the Models Of Good Practice Project for the UK, and was represented at both the Bonn and Helsinki Business Meetings.
Future plans
The National Contact office will co-ordinate the involvement of the UK in the ENWHP’s two year SME Project.
The Corporate Health Standard – the quality mark for workplace health promotion in Wales is to be up-dated and re-developed
The launch of the new Occupational Health Strategy for Great Britain, scheduled for May 2000 will provide a further support for the introduction of pro-active workplace health initiatives.
The National Contact Office is to be represented on the UK Project team for European Health and Safety Week in October 2000. The Project Team is led by the Health and Safety Executive.
3.3.7 Greece
Contact: Elisabeth Galanopoulou E-mail: healthpr@compulink.gr
The Greek governmental policy places great emphasis on public health and occupational health and safety issues. Assistance is provided to SME´s to improve both the working organisation and conditions and also the unemployment rate.
Special training and education programmes are provided for the unemployed.
In accordance with the Presidential Decrees 17/96 and 159/99, enterprises are obliged to engage an occupational physician and a safety engineer or to collaborate with external services for prevention and protection on issues of health and safety (Presidential Decree 95/99), to promote the health of workers. Many enterprises are certified under the ISO 9001-9002 and the ISO 14000 (regarding environment), a fact that comprises a significant tool for WHP.
WHP in general is based on the Luxembourg Declaration and has been adopted by a large number of enterprises.
The existence of the national network has led to good functional co-operation between the various agencies and organisations associated with health and safety at the workplace, such as:
• the Tripartite Committee (consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Labour
& Social Affairs, the Association of Greek Industries and the General Confederation of Greek Workers)
• the Scientific Committee (consisting of representatives from Athens University, the Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Institute of Health, Safety and Working Conditions) in order to organise and develop Workplace Health Promotion in Greece.
• Managers, occupational doctors, safety engineers and all other interested parties
The dissemination of information is based on:
(a) personal, written and telephone communication;
(b) web site on the internet, which is continuously updated with new data, in Greek and English;
(c) the presentation of the activities of the European and the National WHP Network through newspapers, magazines, etc.
(d) the translation into Greek and the distribution of material from the Liaison Office such as the Luxembourg Declaration and the Cardiff Memorandum
(e) the printing of information leaflets and posters about WHP.
(f) the presentation of the Centre in all the important conferences, concerning health and safety in the workplace, in Greece.
During the conference held in Athens by the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine concerning Health and Environment, the Centre presented the European and the National information network and the activities of the National Contact Office.
Future aims
1. Priority will be given to organise an information day (the third), concentrating on workplace health promotion in small and medium-sized enterprises.
2. Informative leaflets will be prepared concerning prevention measures and medical supervision, related to the exposure of certain chemical substances.
3. Visiting and recording enterprises that employ less than 50 employees, in order to be informed and certified under the ISO 9001 – 9002.
4. Preparation of a questionnaire that will record the level of comprehension and integration of the Luxembourg Declaration in all organisations, employer’s and employee’s unions and managers of all enterprises.
5. Comparing the existing situation in Greece with the situation a few years ago, very important steps for the achievement of the expected results of the WHP – Network had been taken.
3.3.8 Iceland
Contact: Dagrún Thordardottir E-mail: dagrun@ver.is
National situation
The national situation has not changed much over the last year although some new regulations have been set up and it will take some time for the impact to be felt.
The new regulations are:
a) the council directive 94/33EC of 22nd June 1994, on the protection of young people at work which took place on September 1st 1999. About 47% of Icelandic teenagers (17 year old teenagers are the most numerous in the group) work 9 hours a day or more during the summer. A smaller group of Icelandic teenagers also work late in the evenings or during the night, which is against the law. The new regulation will hopefully improve these conditions.
b) the Council directive 91/322/EC and 69/94/EC, Threshold Limit Values
The participation in the project “Success factors and Quality in WHP” and the collection of Models of Good Practice was one of the main items in 1999. The companies participating in this project set up an informal network for WHP, the Luxembourg Declaration providing a new perspective of WHP.
Information/public relations
The representatives of the Icelandic Models of Good Practice were presented in a TV interview, but radio interviews were used as well to raise awareness of WHP.
The most widely read newspaper in Iceland published some articles presenting the Luxembourg Declaration, the goals of the Network and reports on some of the
companies participating in the "Success Factor". The WHP-NET-NEWS and the Luxembourg Declaration were disseminated to several companies in Iceland.
In 1999 an Internet homepage was set up for WHP as part of the homepage of the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health. It was not yet finished at the end of 1999 and still has to be translated into English.
A conference was held by the Icelandic Quality Association – part of the programme included the presentation of WHP and specifically the ENWHP including the projects.
Future plans/objectives
The practice of occupational health services (OHS) in Iceland is still immature and it hampers WHP activities. All the same, the standard of occupational safety and health is assumed to be high in most workplaces. The goal remains, to provoke the interest of employers and employees for both OHS and WHP
3.3.9 Italy
Contact: Sergio Perticaroli / Lamberto Briziarelli
E-Mail: perticaroli.isepsl.doc@infuturo.it / lbrizigi@unipg.it
National Situation
The concept of health promotion has arrived later in Italy than in other European countries and acceptance of it has been problematic. This is because, in Italy, a strong resistance to change is evident. Difficulties have also been experienced in implementing changes to the health service and the welfare policy in recent years.
Acceptance of workplace health promotion has been even slower. The industrial injury rate is still bad, with a huge number of accidents happening each year.
However, ideological and political changes have taken place, and the way in which the health and safety of workers is addressed has altered. The relationship between employers and workers organisations has also improved.
The government's commitment to reducing the high accident rate has accelerated progress. Furthermore, the Health Ministry has officially brought Health Promotion into the Health Policy.
It seems that we are on the right track now. In some of the larger organisations, adopting a quality policy prepares the ground for the introduction of a WHP strategy, as the organisation's overall philosophy embraces the concept of Health Promotion.
Future
The NCO will co-ordinate the sub-project “WHP in Latin and southern European countries” which is to be carried out within the framework of the ENWHP in 2000.
The first step of the project will aim to identify the problems in the implementation of WHP in Latin and Southern European countries which exist mainly because of cultural differences. The second step will be to formulate recommendations to improve WHP in these countries. Countries participating are France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain and some ENWHP partners from the northern European countries will form an advisory committee to provide assistance.
3.3.10 Liechtenstein