Online interactive Risk Assessment OiRA

1. Online interactive Risk Assessment OiRA Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Extractive Industries Julia Flintrop 22. February 2013

2. Why OiRA? • More than 90% of the companies in the EU have less than 10 employees. • What about the Extracive Industry? • The number of small and medium sized enterprises in the EU is rising. • Occupational safety and health faces different challenges in small companies, e.g. with regard to knowledge and resources. • Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have more fatal accidents than big enterprises (Eurostat data, 2008). • Risk assessment and risk management are not only required by law. Proper risk management is also the most effective way of reducing and eliminating occupational accidents and diseases.

3. Project Goals • The Community Strategy (2007-2012) requires the “development of simple tools to facilitate risk assessment”. The necessary steps to do so are… • …to develop and promote practical tools to help MSEs to put in place the risk assessment (RA) process; • …to help demystify the RA process among MSEs; and • …to build a critical mass of social partners (EU and national), governments, public institutions interested in developing and disseminating RA tools tailored to the specificities and needs of European MSEs. • László Andor about the new OSH strategy(Juni 2012): • OiRA, the Online Interactive Risk Assessment tool developed by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in Bilbao can provide SMEs with an effective and less costly solution to document risk assessment. This is a tool that needs to be further promoted and used to its full potential.

4. The Dutch Example The OiRA tool is based on the successful development of the Dutch RI&E (Risk Inventory and Evaluation) instrument:

5. OiRA Steering Committee • The OiRA project is developed by EU-OSHA, in partnership with its • stakeholders through the OiRA Steering Committee: • EU social partners - ETUC, BusinessEurope, UEAPME • Government representatives • The European Commission • The Dutch government and Dutch social partners • Agency representatives • The mission of the OiRA Steering Committee: • To give strategic and expert advice to the Agency on the development, implementation and promotion of the OiRA tool

6. Development strategy at national level • Bottom-up promotion initiative: • The Agency promotes the tool at national level (through the FOPs) and puts the OiRA tool generator at the disposal of the national social partners/ governments/ public institutions • If governments/ public institutions wish to develop generic or sectoral tools, social partners should be involved

7. OiRA tools generator National EU-OSHA intermediaries 1st available tool: Cyprus hairdressing tools Micro & small companies Target audience – national stakeholders OiRA Steering Committee EU-OSHA Already available in 13 languages

8. Development strategy at EU-level • Top-down promotion initiative: • The agency promotes the tool at EU level and puts the OiRA tool generator at the disposal of the EU sectoral social partners (or the Advisory Committee on Health and Safety) • An “EU tool” is developed (for instance, in English with references to EU legislation) • Social partners/governments at MS level are invited to adapt the tool (language, legislation) to their national context

9. OiRA tools generator EU-Social dialogue partners Already available in 13 languages national tools General EU tool National social partners Target Audience – EU Sectoral Social Dialogue OiRA Steering Committee EU-OSHA 1. published tool on EU level: leather & tanning sector

10. The OiRA philosophy • Provision of free and open source software • More than a software, a diffusion model where social partners play a key role • OiRA tools available to the end-users free of charge • Development of an OiRA community: • Sharing tools (possibility to clone and translate/adapt tools from other countries/sectors) • Sharing of experiences/good practice

11. Advantages • OiRA offers a host of benefits: • Online and Interactive (new generation of RA tools) • Checklists with additional information • Automatic generation of an action plan with “to do” lists • Report documenting the RA automatically generated • User-friendly and easy-to-use • Adapted to specific sectors (with the look and feel and the lexicon of the sector)

12. What does the Agency offer? • To develop OiRA, EU-OSHA offers: • Free access to the OiRA tools generator • All the information required to develop an OiRA tool • Training for the developers of the tool • Help desk support (for technical matters) • Membership of the OiRA community (enabling partners to contribute to/ benefit from the tools and developments made by other members)

13. Conditions for use • Project participation requires: • IT infrastructure - a website of the social partner organisation(s) • Implementation plan of the tool • Promotion campaign to raise awareness of the tool • Acceptance of the OiRA philosophy – singing the memorandum

14. Development of the tool • Participating EU partners are expected to: • Sign the Memorandum • Develop a sectoral tool by using the OiRA tools generator • Allocate the necessary resources • Set up a project team • Develop the content • Validate the tool (by experts and by testing the tool within companies) • Promote and disseminate the tool within the Member States • Maintain the tool (keep it updated)

15. EU overview on OiRA involvement

16. Thank you • For further information visit: • http://www.oiraproject.eu • Or contact: • Julia Flintrop flintrop@osha.europa.eu • Lorenzo Munarmunar@osha.europa.eu