How Europeans assess health and safety at work

Europe’s citizens are well informed about occupational health and safety, while also being concerned about the impact of the economic crisis and recession on their health and safety at work. These are the findings of a pan-European survey on safety and health at work, carried out by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. However, there is some fear that the improvements which Europeans have seen in this regard will be eroded by the economic crisis.

About the survey

A European-wide opinion poll on safety and health at work, commissioned by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), was published in October 2009. The survey focuses on the perception of European citizens of health and safety at work. The German-based market research institute TNS Infratest, 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 EU Member States. However, in Belgium, Greece, Hungary and the Netherlands, a representative quota sample was drawn. The interviews were carried out by phone, using the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system, with the exception of Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Romania where face-to-face interviews were conducted due to the low telephone penetration rates. The field work was carried out in April and May 2009.

Survey questions

In the poll, interviewees were asked questions covering five key areas in relation to health and safety at work.

• If you were deciding whether to take a new job, which two of the following possible conditions would be the most influential factors in accepting a job – salary, safe and healthy working conditions, job security or working hours?

• To which extent is ill health caused by the jobs people have – a great deal/to some extent/not really/not at all?

• Over the past five years, has health and safety at work in your country got much better/better/worse/much worse?

• Regarding safety and health risks at the workplace, do you consider yourself as very well/fairly well/not very well/not at all informed about such risks?

• Do you expect health and safety conditions at work to deteriorate due to the economic crisis – a great deal/to some extent/not really/not at all?

Main findings

The survey reveals that three out of four Europeans associate ill health with the type of jobs that people do and consider work as a cause of ill health. Some 60% of Europeans expect that the economic crisis will lead to a worsening of working conditions, also affecting health and safety at the workplace. Moreover, the survey respondents believe that the need to have a job is such that they would place the salary level (57%) and job security (53%) higher than their health and safety at work (36%) in choosing a new job. Working hours have the least influence on decisions over which type of work to take up, with just 23% of respondents indicating it as one of their two principal factors in choosing work.

However, some gender differences emerged in the survey responses. Male respondents regard salary (61%) and job security (55%) as the two most important factors when looking for a new job, while the corresponding figures for female respondents are 53% and 51%, respectively. In their decision on taking up a new job, women attach more importance to working hours than men – 26% of female respondents against 19% of male respondents (see figure). The level of educational attainment also influences the importance that European citizens attach to working hours: those with the lowest levels of educational attainment are least concerned about working hours in choosing a job.

Most decisive factors in taking a new job, by gender (%)

On a positive note, the majority of respondents, particularly those in the 15 European Union Member States prior to enlargement in 2004 and 2007, consider themselves as well informed about workplace health and safety risks. Overall, men are more likely to hold this opinion than women. More than half of the survey respondents (57%) believe that health and safety at work have improved over the past five years. Again, some gender differences emerged in the survey responses, with 62% of men believing that health and safety conditions have improved in recent years, compared with 52% of women. Furthermore, men feel better informed on safety and health matters (71%) than women (61%). Commenting on these gender differences regarding the survey answers, the Director of EU-OSHA, Jukka Takala, stated:

In fact, safety and health risks of women at work tend to be underestimated and neglected. The incompatibility of working time with family life, the ‘double shift’ which still affects women disproportionately and the fact that there is more emphasis on accidents at work than on occupational health (which leads to attention being turned towards male-dominated sectors and occupations) are some of the new challenges which must be faced.

Sonia McKay, Working Lives Research Institute