A new Occupational Safety Act that took effect in Finland on 1 January 2003 clarifies the responsibilities of employers. It follows proposals that a tripartite committee examining a reform of the Occupational Safety and Health Act issued in December 2001. An Occupational Healthcare Act came into force earlier, on 1 January 2002. One of the aims of the new legislation is to address work-related stress, by reorganising conditions at the workplace so as to promote 'coping' with work. (FI0201198F [1]).[1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined/occupational-health-and-safety-legislation-under-reform
A new Occupational Safety Act came into force in Finland on 1 January 2003. According to the Act, employers are obliged to apply safety management methods in all operations, including planning and organising work. Employers are responsible for matching human resources with the volume of work, as well as arranging monitoring of workloads and of the way that these relate to employees' capacity. They also need to take actions to prevent harassment at the workplace. The new legislation seeks to address persistent safety problems in areas such as work-related accidents.
A new Occupational Safety Act that took effect in Finland on 1 January 2003 clarifies the responsibilities of employers. It follows proposals that a tripartite committee examining a reform of the Occupational Safety and Health Act issued in December 2001. An Occupational Healthcare Act came into force earlier, on 1 January 2002. One of the aims of the new legislation is to address work-related stress, by reorganising conditions at the workplace so as to promote 'coping' with work. (FI0201198F).
According to the new Act, employers are obliged to apply safety management methods in all operations, including planning and organising work. An accelerating pace of work and increased stress can lead to exhaustion, which increases the risk of accidents. The new Act requires that employers match human resources with the volume of work. Employers are also expected to arrange relevant monitoring of workloads and to monitor the extent to which these workloads correspond to workers' physical and mental capacity. They also need to take actions to prevent harassment at workplace. Employees are not only the object of protection, but also active participants, who must by all available means take care of their own safety and that of other employees.
Besides construction sites, the definition of a 'common workplace'- ie a workplace where there is one principal employer but other employers or individual contractors also operate - has now been extended to all industries including industrial plants and shopping centres. In such common workplaces, the various employers must cooperate on safety matters.
No overall improvement in occupational safety in the 1990s
The new legislation on occupational safety responds to a clear need. Despite extensive measures taken to promote occupational safety and health in the 1990s, there appear to be no clear signs of improvement. Since 1993, the number of occupational diseases has diminished but the number of work-related accidents has risen considerably - see the table below.
| . | 1993 | 1997 | 2001 |
| Occupational diseases | 6,144 | 5,748 | 3,329 |
| Workplace accidents | 85,821 | 100,850 | 102,726 |
| Work-related traffic accidents | 12,944 | 13,931 | 14,824 |
| Total | 104,909 | 120,529 | 120,879 |
| Out of these leading to death | 147 | 182 | 175 |
Due to the fact that, traditionally, men have worked in industry and women in services, the share of men in occupational diseases and accidents has been high in Finland, at about 70%. The risk of an occupational disease or accident affecting men is more than twice that for women. Furthermore, men have a risk of death due to occupational disease or accident as much as six times higher than women's.
It is estimated that in 2002 the total number of occupational diseases and accidents will amount to 130,000. In 2002, there were about 32 accidents per million working hours (an accident is defined as causing at least three days of sick leave) - about the same level as in the previous year. The number of workplace accidents that led to death was 46 in 2002. The total number of deaths due to occupational diseases and accidents is estimated to have increased between 2001 and 2002. Most of the deaths that are related to occupational diseases were caused by exposure to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s.
There are large differences in accident frequency between different sectors. The proportionally most dangerous industries are construction, manufacture of timber and wood products, manufacture of metal products and manufacture of food and drink. The accident frequency in industrial enterprises with fewer than 200 employees is higher than in enterprises with more than 500 employees. Two-thirds of fatal occupational accidents occur in operations or tasks where the working conditions, working environment or other factors change quickly. Such work conditions appear in construction, installation, maintenance, storage, mining, agriculture and forestry and in work on traffic routes.
According to the preliminary statistics for 2002, the number of workplace accidents diminished by 3% in manufacturing compared with the 2001 figure. At the same time, hours of work diminished by 1% leading to a slight reduction in accident frequency in this sector. In construction, workplace accidents rose by 2% while working hours remained at the same level, which meant a rise in accident frequency. In the female-dominated municipal sector, the number of accidents rose by 5%. Since in this sector hours of work rose only slightly, this led to a clear increase in accident frequency.
Accident frequency is high in male-dominated occupations in construction and manufacturing. The figures for women are high in nursing, trade and cleaning. The causes of female accidents are often physical overload as well as uneven and slippery floors, access routes and work platforms.
Government response
The Finnish government has launched a medium-term action programme, the Prioritising occupational safety - occupational accident prevention programme 2001-5. The objective of the programme is to reduce steadily the number and seriousness of occupational accidents in Finland. The core idea of the programme is to promote adoption of a high-standard safety culture and a 'vision zero' concept in all sectors of Finnish working life. The 'vision zero' approach to accidents is based on an expert group memorandum that was prepared for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in 2000. It was approved on a tripartite basis in discussions with social partner organisations.
Under the programme, in order to promote a high-standard safety culture and develop safe working methods and practices and production methods, examples of good practices applied in accident prevention are collected and distributed to workplaces, and information and training campaigns have been launched. This work utilises the accident prevention programme (2001-2) of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and other actions which aim at reducing the number of occupational accidents in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector.
The central idea of the programme is to encourage workplaces to take action on their own initiative. It presents priorities as well as goals and practices that can be adopted in safety operations, and proposes actual measures to be taken by the national actors in their joint efforts for better occupational safety. The cooperation of the social partner organisations in accident prevention is concentrated in the Centre for Occupational Safety (Työturvallisuuskeskus), which targets its information towards people acting in combined decision-making on occupational safety and health matters at workplaces and line organisations.
Commentary
Occupational safety is a key element in the quality of working life and well-being of citizens. However, in the 1990s occupational safety stagnated in Finland. An accelerating pace of work and increased stress lower the quality of working life and increase the risk of accidents. To improve occupational safety, the Finnish government has taken an active role. The new Occupational Safety Act, which came into force in January 2003, explicitly addresses problems of modern working life. The Act requires, among other measures, that employers match human resources with the volume of work and expects them to monitor workloads and their match with employees' capacity. Furthermore, by introducing an occupational accident prevention programme the government has launched a number of initiatives to improve occupational safety in Finland. It remains to be seen how quickly these measures are reflected in working life and the occupational safety statistics. (Reija Lilja, Labour Institute for Economic Research)
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2003), New occupational safety legislation in force, article.
