Annual report 2018 : summary.
Date: 2019-09-06
Institutions: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
Subjects: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, activity report, occupational health, occupational safety, public health

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

Summary
Annual Report 2018

Safety and health at work is everyone’s concern. It’s good for you. It’s good for business.

Summary - Annual Report 2018 

The year 2018 saw a great deal of activity at the European Agency for Safety and Health at 
Work (EU-OSHA), and in its network of partners across Europe, with several major projects 
reaching completion. These included the foresight project on new and emerging occupational 
safety and health (OSH) risks associated with digitalisation. The findings prompted 
discussion among policy-makers at EU and Member State levels. The project ‘Improving 
OSH in micro and small enterprises (MSEs)’ (2014-18) also resulted in the publication of 
some significant reports in 2018. Most of the EU’s workers are employed in MSEs, so 
practical insights into how OSH can best be managed in them are of great value, and the 
project attracted significant interest. EU-OSHA will follow up on both these projects in the 
years to come. 

The 2018-19 Healthy Workplaces Campaign on dangerous substances was launched in 
April. The Agency, its focal points and the campaign partners collaborated on raising 
awareness and disseminating practical tools and good practices throughout the year. 
EU-OSHA also began preparations for a major milestone and cause for celebration in 2019: 
its 25th anniversary. 

1  Anticipating change 
The 2-year foresight study on OSH risks associated with digitalisation was finalised in 2018, 
with the publication of a series of reports and supporting materials. The project explored the 
potential impact of digitalisation — for example artificial intelligence, robotics and employee 
monitoring — on OSH by 2025. This new 
research into a fast-changing area was 
promoted at a series of workshops and 
attracted interest from across Europe. 

The foresight study identified work 
intermediated by online platforms as an area 
of rapidly growing importance for OSH. The 
summary of EU-OSHA’s resulting report on 
protecting workers in the online platform 
economy was translated into 18 languages in 
2018. 

Two expert discussion papers concerning the 
e-retail sector and performance-enhancing 
drugs in the workplace were discussed at a seminar in February and published later in the 
year. EU-OSHA commissioned another four papers on topics including artificial intelligence 
and big data for publication in 2019. 

© Unsplash 

Facts and figures 

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2.1  ESENER 

EU-OSHA’s European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER) looks 
at how OSH risks are managed in practice in workplaces across Europe. Preparations for 
ESENER-3 began in 2018, with the fieldwork set to be carried out in 2019. Meanwhile, the 
Agency published and promoted two reports based on ESENER-2, Management of 
occupational health and safety in European workplaces and Management of psychosocial 

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

risks in European workplaces. Findings from ESENER-2 were also discussed throughout the 
year at various international events.  

2.2  OSH overviews 

It was a busy year for the OSH overview on micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The project 
was aimed at supporting evidence-based policy-making and the development of practical 
tools by identifying good practices for managing OSH in MSEs. MSEs are the main driver of 
Europe’s economy and one of EU-OSHA’s key target audiences.  

Publications in 2018 included the final report and executive summary Safety and health in micro 
and small enterprises in the EU: final report from the 3-year SESAME project and a report entitled 
Safety and health in micro and small enterprises: the view from the workplace, looking at 
attitudes to and experiences of OSH in more than 160 European MSEs. In addition, 18 
country reports examined current OSH practices in participating Member States. The findings 
were presented at a high-level conference in Brussels. They were well received and have 
stimulated much debate among policy-makers and OSH experts.  

A new web page was also created for the Agency’s OSH overview on work-related diseases; 
this is a vital area, as 100,000 deaths are caused in Europe each year by these diseases. In 
2018, EU-OSHA published the final report on its major project ‘Alert and sentinel approaches 
for the identification of work-related diseases in the EU’. It discusses the drivers for and 
obstacles to adopting such systems and makes recommendations for improving alert and 
sentinel surveillance in the EU. In addition, work continued on a major project to raise 
awareness of workers’ exposure to biological agents and the serious health effects that they 
can cause. The preliminary findings were presented at a workshop in Amsterdam.  

In response to concerns at workplace 
level, the Agency published a report on 
fumigation risks to workers, which 
received positive feedback.  

Also in 2018, work was completed on the 
3-year ‘Rehabilitation and return to work 
after cancer’ project, with the final report 
published in May to coincide with the 
European Week Against Cancer. It was 
accompanied by a leaflet providing 
guidance for employers. A feasibility study 
on a survey to assess workers’ exposures 
to carcinogens will be implemented in 
2019. 

© Pixabay 

Work was ongoing on the OSH overview project ‘Costs and benefits of occupational safety 
and health’, intended to highlight the value of effective OSH. EU-OSHA disseminated key 
findings at several international conferences. The final report is due to be published in 2019. 

Finally, the Agency launched a new 3-year OSH overview in 2018, aimed at identifying 
effective ways of preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which are the most common 
work-related health issue in the EU. At the request of the European Commission, EU-OSHA 
published a guide for small businesses on preventing and managing work-related MSDs and 
psychosocial risks. 

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

Tools for OSH management 

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The OiRA web platform offers free online interactive tools for carrying out workplace risk 
assessments; the software was updated in 2018, leading to improved functionality and some 
new features. The OiRA community, key to the project’s success, was very active in 2018: 
more than 20 new OiRA tools were published, bringing the total to 160, and over 85,000 risk 
assessments were carried out using the platform. EU-OSHA published two case studies to 
support the collaborative work of the OiRA community and the Interactive Risk Assessment 
Tool (IRAT) network. The Agency also started supporting pilot projects aimed at promoting 
the tools in the Member States. Furthermore, EU-OSHA also promoted OiRA through several 
new networking initiatives, working with Enterprise Europe Network and with stakeholders in 
vocational education and training. 

4  Raising awareness 
4.1  Campaigns 

The evaluation of the 2016-17 Healthy Workplaces for All Ages campaign was very positive, 
with many key strengths identified; EU-OSHA is following up on the recommendations from 
the evaluation to make future campaigns even better. 

EU-OSHA’s 2018-19 Healthy Workplaces Campaign, which officially launched in Brussels on 
24 April 2018, aims to raise awareness of the risks that dangerous substances pose to 
workers. Resources were disseminated to generate support for the campaign, with many, 
such as the campaign guide, available in 25 languages. Key products included a database of 
over 700 tools for managing dangerous substances and a new e-tool targeting MSEs. By the 
end of the year, an impressive 620,000 campaign materials had been distributed to 
stakeholders, and a revamped campaign toolkit had been introduced. 

The success of each campaign is dependent on EU-OSHA’s national focal points, which 
coordinate activities at the national level. In 2018, the focal points implemented more than 
220 activities, including 141 campaign events. The campaign also benefited hugely from the 

© EU-OSHA/Asier Camacho Fernández 

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

active involvement of 90 official campaign partners, who carried out 101 activities and 35 
campaign media partners, who promoted the campaign through their channels. The official 
campaign partners were also busy engaging with EU-OSHA’s good practice exchange 
initiative throughout 2018, organising events and sharing experiences. The Good Practice 
Awards competition was launched in April, to encourage the sharing of innovative 
approaches to managing dangerous substances. 

EU-OSHA created special video clips for the campaign, one for the launch of the campaign, 
one to encourage participation in the European Week for Safety and Health at Work — a 
highlight of the campaign — and one to acknowledge and promote the work of its network. 
The Agency also set up a dedicated Facebook page for the European Week. Indeed, the 
campaign was promoted throughout the year on social media (using the hashtag 
#EUhealthyworkplaces), through news articles and in a series of web highlights. 

Furthermore, EU-OSHA continued to support the Roadmap on Carcinogens, making 
carcinogens a particular focus of the Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances 
campaign. To raise awareness of the Roadmap, EU-OSHA joined forces with the 
Netherlands Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment to run a session at the 32nd 
International Congress on Occupational Health, and chaired a workshop at a conference 
hosted by the Austrian EU Presidency.  

4.2  Awareness-raising activities 

In November 2018, the Healthy Workplaces Film Award was presented to Marina, a film 
about a Romanian nurse in Germany by Julia Roesler, with a special mention given to Open 
to the Public by Silvia Belloti. 

A new Napo film on dust at work was 
released online in April to coincide 
with the launch of the 2018-19 
campaign. The Napo website started 
a revamp process to host training 
resources on musculoskeletal 
disorders in a new section ‘Napo in 
the workplace’, to be published in 
2019. 

In total, the Agency published 41 
reports and summaries, 4 info sheets, 
18 case studies and 8 discussion 
papers in 2018. EU-OSHA participated in over 100 events in 2018, including a celebration of 
Europe Day in May, and kick-started the preparations for the Agency’s 25th anniversary 
ceremony and communication actions in 2019.  

© Napo Consortium 

The EU-OSHA press office published 16 multilingual news releases, each distributed across 
2,900 media contacts, answered 24 media requests and wrote 26 articles. In terms of social 
media activity, EU-OSHA’s strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube 
continued, with over 300 social media posts.  

EU-OSHA’s corporate website was also active throughout 2018; 60 multilingual highlights 
and over 110 news items were published. Overall, the Agency’s suite of websites received 
over 2.4 million visits during the year. Significant work went into updating existing sections 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

and creating new ones to introduce products such as EU-OSHA’s data visualisation tools 
and e-guides.  

The Agency launched its focal point assistance tool (FAST), designed to support the focal 
points in organising and promoting awareness raising activities. As a result, more than 100 
activities were successfully implemented. 

The Agency provided translations of its 2018 products on request to the focal points and 
launched its translation portfolio offer for 2019. Multilingual versions of the core campaign 
materials were finalised. To enable the creation of highly accurate translations, work 
continued on a major update to the multilingual OSH thesaurus used by translators.  

5  Networking knowledge 
Several new articles were added to EU-OSHA’s online encyclopaedia of OSH knowledge, 
OSHwiki, and many existing ones edited; in addition, a process of systemically updating the 
articles got under way. 

EU-OSHA continued to collaborate with the European Commission on the development of 
the EU OSH Information System, an authoritative user-friendly system providing information 
on key OSH indicators through data visualisation. It created two indicators, on national OSH 
strategies and work-related accidents, and subsequently produced a pilot version. 

This pilot was informed by the Agency’s ongoing work on national OSH strategies; in 2018, 
the Agency compiled a report on strategies in 25 Member States. The findings were 
presented at the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health’s workshop in Luxembourg in 
October. 

The annual e-tools seminar, held in Bilbao in September, tackled the topic of OSH in relation 
to driving and road transport. Also with regard to road safety, EU-OSHA continued its 
collaboration with the European Commission Directorate-General for Employment on the 
VeSafe e-guide, offering user-friendly guidance on vehicle-related OSH risks.  

6  Networking and corporate communication 
An evaluation of EU-OSHA’s communication, networking and stakeholder engagement 
activities was carried out. The outcome was very positive — EU-OSHA’s efforts to engage 
with its partners and intermediaries and respond to their needs were highlighted among its 
strengths — and there were recommendations about how the Agency could build on its good 
performance. 

The Governing Board met twice in 2018, to 
consider the draft programming document 
for 2019-21 and review the Agency’s 
activities in 2017, and the Bureau convened 
in November to discuss the Agency’s future 
direction. EU-OSHA also met with the Tools 
and Awareness Raising Advisory Group 
and the OSH Knowledge Advisory Group to 
discuss campaign-related issues and other 
projects. 

© Pixabay 

EU-OSHA continued its close relationships 
with European institutions and stakeholders in 2018, collaborating with the Senior Labour 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

Inspectors Committee and working with the Austrian Presidency on its conference ‘Fight 
against occupational cancer’, to give just two examples. EU-OSHA’s Director met the newly 
appointed Director-General for Employment to discuss the establishment of a new European 
Labour Authority. Furthermore, in January, Commissioner Marianne Thyssen made her first 
visit to EU-OSHA’s offices in Bilbao. 

The working relationship between EU-OSHA and its partners, such as its national focal 
points, is key to the Agency’s success. EU-OSHA staff visited various focal points throughout 
2018, including visits by the Director to Bulgaria and Romania, to encourage national efforts 
to promote OSH. EU-OSHA also worked closely with the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) 
and EEN OSH ambassadors — who work collaboratively with the focal points to coordinate 
awareness-raising activities in their own countries — to launch and promote the 2018-19 
Healthy Workplaces Campaign.  

The Agency continued to support the integration of the Western Balkans and Turkey into the 
European OSH structure by organising training sessions, conferences and workshops 
throughout 2018. Its programme, funded by the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, 
aims to raise awareness of OSH issues and encourage a culture of risk prevention in these 
beneficiary countries.  

© Pixabay 

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 

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Summary - Annual Report 2018 

The  European  Agency  for  Safety  and 

Health  at  Work  (EU-OSHA)  contributes  to 

making  Europe  a  safer,  healthier  and  more 

productive  place 

to  work.  The  Agency 

researches, 

develops, 

and 

distributes 

reliable,  balanced,  and  impartial  safety  and 

health 

information  and  organises  pan-

European awareness raising campaigns. Set 

up by the European Union in 1994 and based 

in  Bilbao,  Spain,  the Agency  brings  together 

representatives 

from 

the 

European 

Commission,  Member  State  governments, 

employers’  and  workers’  organisations,  as 

well  as  leading  experts  in  each  of  the  EU 

Member States and beyond. 

European Agency for Safety and Health at 
Work  

12 Santiago de Compostela, 
E-48003 Bilbao, Spain
Тel. +34 944358400
Fax +34 944358401
E-mail: information@osha.europa.eu

http://osha.europa.eu 

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 

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