Integrating health and safety into education and training

During the European week for safety and health at work in October 2006, the Bulgarian government hosted a national conference on the occupational safety and health of young people in the country’s capital city, Sofia. The conference was part of the European health and safety campaign ‘Safe start’, which was dedicated to ensuring young people a safe and healthy start in their working lives. The emphasis was on the need to teach young people about health and safety at work and to foster a culture of risk prevention.

The 2006 European week for safety and health at work was devoted to young people to ensure a safe and healthy start to their working lives. In Bulgaria, at the national conference Safe start! on 25 October in the capital city, Sofia, the General Labour Inspectorate (GLI) provided evidence that young workers have a higher accident rate than older workers. This is due to various reasons, including lack of training, experience and awareness of occupational safety and health at work and associated risks, as well as poor working conditions.

Initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), the conference brought together key actors in the field, including experts from enterprise committees for safety and health at work; practitioners on safety and health at work, representatives of labour medical offices, the National Centre for Healthcare and GLI, the social partners, and representatives of various ministries and departments.

Speaking at the conference, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Emilia Maslarova, commented: ‘It is important to ensure that all young workers are provided with adequate training and supervision. An occupational safety and health culture has to be integrated in education.’ The President of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), Jeliazko Hristov, added: ‘The Bulgarian educational system at all levels as well as different forms of lifelong learning must contribute more in preparing young persons for safe and healthy work’. He continued: ‘The issues discussed now are of great importance for society but I would like to expand the conference theme to “Start safe and start actively!” because a safe and healthy workplace is not the only requirement. A willingness to improve the business environment, where the young people of today and tomorrow will work, is also necessary.’

The conference focused particularly on existing legislation in respect of risk prevention and guaranteeing appropriate working conditions for young people, not least in light of the high level of health and safety violations reported in the construction sector in August 2006 (BG0607059I).

Training on health and safety at work for young people

During the European week for safety and health at work, GLI carried out inspections in 327 secondary schools, 18 technical universities and 3,000 companies with 44,000 young workers in order to assess the quality of education and training on health and safety and the working conditions for young people aged under 29 years. The inspections revealed that, in secondary education, health and safety modules are introduced at a late stage in the curriculum and the content is outdated. Furthermore, in technical universities, although modules on health and safety exist within the bachelor degree, there are no departments on health and safety at work. Overall, the national strategy for education and training does not include health and safety at work for young people. In most companies, no special instructions on health and safety and risk prevention measures are targeted at young employees. The inspections also revealed that the occupational accident rate is twice as high among the younger age groups of male workers than among older male workers (see Figure).

At the conference, the regional branch of GLI in Vidin in northwestern Bulgaria presented its two-week education campaign on health and safety, which involved 1,000 students from all schools in the region. A special booklet, entitled ‘We already work’, was distributed in the schools.

Accident rate, by sex and age (per 1,000 workers)

Source: Ivanovich, E., ‘Medical and labour issues of young employees’, Conference presentation, in Health and safety at work, Vol. 10, 2006 (in Bulgarian)

Accident rate, by sex and age (per 1,000 workers)

Good practice in companies

Several examples of company good practice were presented at the conference, including those from: Genko Angelov in the southwestern town of Sandanski; McDonald’s, covering 21 branches in different Bulgarian towns; and the Black Sea tourism enterprises of Zlatni Piasatsi (Golden Sands) near the northeastern city of Varna and Albena AD in the resort of Albena. These companies all provide young people with information, instruction, training and regular medical examinations. Furthermore, they place special emphasis on risk assessment and prevention.

The most outstanding example is McDonald’s, which employs about 1,000 persons with an average age of 23 years. The management is committed to ensuring health and safety at work for its young workforce. In practical terms, health and safety training consists of a one-day briefing on accident prevention in the workplace, followed by a three-week induction including videos, interactive training, tests and distribution of training materials. Satisfaction with health and safety measures is monitored on a regular basis through questionnaires and meetings with human resource development staff.

Commentary

The participants agreed that the promotion of EU and national legislation – as well as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recommendations on health and safety at work for young people – must continue with the combined effort of the government, GLI and the social partners. Moreover, a comprehensive policy integrating health and safety into education and training must be introduced to achieve improved awareness and compliance in this area.

Emilia Dimitrova, CITUB Department for safety and health at work