Citizens voice concerns over health and safety at work in EU poll

In 2009, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work released the results of a European-wide survey on safety and health at work. According to the findings, Slovenian citizens are concerned that the economic crisis may adversely affect workplace health and safety. Although respondents feel they are well informed about health and safety at work, they believe that ill health is often caused by work and that health and safety has deteriorated in the past five years.

About the survey

In October 2009, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) released the results of a Pan-European opinion poll on occupational safety and health (EU0911059I). The survey provides up-to-date and reliable data on people’s perception of their working environment, such as: the most decisive factors when looking for a new job; work as a cause of ill health; the development of safety and health at work in Slovenia; information levels regarding occupational safety and health risks; and the impact of the economic crisis on working conditions in Slovenia.

The German-based political and social research institute TNS Infratest, a global leader in opinion polling which is also responsible for carrying out the Eurobarometer surveys, conducted the poll through an EU-wide omnibus survey.

Survey methodology

The survey involved more than 27,000 interviews, drawn from a representative random sample of European citizens aged 18 years and over, with a usual place of residence in the territory of the European Union (EU) Member States. Survey participants had to have full command of the respective country’s national language and came from a wide range of educational and occupational backgrounds. In Slovenia, the data was collected using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI), from March until May 2009.

Main findings

Overall, people in many of the 27 EU Member States (EU27), including Slovenia, regard themselves to be well informed about health and safety risks in the workplace. Only 26% of respondents in Slovenia, compared with 22% in the EU27, indicated that they lack information about such risks at the workplace. A very small proportion of survey respondents in Slovenia (8%) believe that they are not at all informed about workplace health and safety risks, compared with an EU27 average of 6%. In general, more men (64%) than women (57%) are very well or fairly well informed about health and safety risks at work. Economically active respondents are also significantly better informed (73%) about these risks than economically inactive respondents (50%).

Health and safety a decisive factor in choosing new job

According to the survey results, respondents in Slovenia consider safe and healthy working conditions to be the second most decisive factor in choosing a new job. Health and safety at work are thus more important for Slovenian citizens than job security. The most important factor determining one’s choice of a job relates to the salary level in Slovenia, as in the EU27. In the EU27, however, safe and healthy working conditions rank in third position when choosing a new job, just before working hours.

Interestingly, in Slovenia, there is little difference in responses with regard to gender, age, educational level and employment status of respondents. In general, male respondents who completed their full-time education between the ages of 16 and 19 years, as well as economically active survey participants, all consider health and safety at work to be a somewhat less decisive factor in choosing a new job than other survey respondents.

Ill health caused by work

With regard to the question whether ill health is caused by work, people in Slovenia have a considerably different perception than the EU27 average: while in the EU27 only 28% of respondents believe that a great deal of ill health is caused by the job that people have, 47% of Slovenian respondents attribute ill health to work to a large extent. However, responses to this question varied noticeably between the sexes: 52% of female survey participants in Slovenia responded that a great deal of ill health is caused by the job, compared with 42% of male respondents sharing this opinion.

The level of educational attainment also influenced people’s perception in this regard. Almost two thirds of respondents who finished their full-time education at the age of 15 years or younger (62%) are of the opinion that ill health is largely caused by the job that people have, while this proportion is significantly lower among respondents with secondary or higher education qualifications (47% and 45%, respectively). Overall, a greater proportion of respondents in Slovenia (91%) compared with the corresponding share in the EU27 (75%) consider work to be the cause of ill health to a great or to some extent.

Perceived decline in safety and health at work

The development of safety and health at work is also an issue where the perception of Slovenian respondents differs considerably from that of respondents in the EU27. Some 55% of respondents in Slovenia think that workplace health and safety has deteriorated in the past five years, compared with an EU27 average of 32%. On the other hand, a significantly greater proportion of men (41%) than women (28%) believe that health and safety at work has improved in Slovenia over the past five years. This perception also varied depending on the respondents’ age group: 50% of younger respondents aged between 18 and 34 years are of the opinion that workplace health and safety has improved, compared with only 24% of those aged 55 years and over.

With regard to the level of educational attainment, there is a significant difference in attitudes towards health and safety issues between respondents who completed their full-time education at the age of 15 years or younger and the other two groups – that is, respondents who completed their full-time education between the ages of 16 and 19 years and those who were aged 20 years or over when finishing full-time education. Only 23% of respondents of the former age group have a positive opinion of the development of workplace health and safety in Slovenia, against respectively 34% and 36% of respondents in the two latter age groups. There is little difference in the responses of economically active and inactive respondents.

Impact of economic crisis on health and safety conditions

According to the opinion poll, 61% of European citizens expect that the global economic crisis will lead to a deterioration in health and safety conditions at work in their country. This proportion is considerably higher in Slovenia, where 81% of respondents believe that the recession will have a negative impact on workplace health and safety conditions. More women (86%) than men (76%) in Slovenia think that health and safety conditions at work might deteriorate due to the economic crisis. In terms of age, respondents in the youngest age group are more optimistic than those in the older age groups: 30% of respondents aged 18–34 years feel that the economic crisis will not have a negative impact on health and safety conditions at work, compared with 13% and 12% of respondents aged, respectively, 35–54 years and 55 years or over. There is no difference in the perception of this issue on the basis of the respondents’ employment status.

Mirko Mrcela, Organisational and Human Resources Research Centre (OHRC)