EUROPEAN CONSTRUCTION SAFETY SUMMIT

‘Building in Safety’

The construction sector was the focus of the 2004 European Week for Safety and Health at Work – the largest OSH event of its kind in Europe.  

The construction sector is recognised as one of Europe’s largest industries, with an annual turnover estimated at €902 billion per year with an official 12.7 million employees in the EU-15 alone, equivalent to 7.9% of the total EU workforce.  The unofficial number of employees is estimated to be considerably higher as estimates show that there is a high undeclared labour force within the industry. The European Commission estimates that 7%-19% of all work in the EU is undeclared.  The problem is believed to be particularly acute in construction.  47% of all construction workers work in businesses with fewer than 10 staff, whilst the EU average is 36%.  

Why was Construction singled out for this special honour?  Sad to say, construction has a much higher accident rate than the European industry average.  On a  relative basis, the incidence of non-fatal accidents for construction is 141, compared to an EU industry average of 100. Falling from heights, such as scaffolding, is one of the biggest problems, along with accidents involving transport, on- and off-site. Around 1,300 workers are killed each year (that is, 13 employees out of every 100,000), more than twice the average of other business sectors.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work launched its campaign in Dublin on 30 April 2004, as part of the Agency's annual European Week for Safety and Health at Work.  The campaign was backed by all Member States, EU acceding, candidate and EFTA countries, the Irish and Dutch EU Presidencies, the European Commission and Parliament, trade unions and employers' federations.  

A multilingual website (http://ew2004.osha.eu.int  was created by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, including examples of good practice).

A European Week for Safety and Health at Work took place during 18-22 October 2004. All safety and health institutions and organisations, trade unions, companies, managers, employees and safety representatives were invited to take part and organise their own events during this week.  

A construction summit was held in Bilbao, Spain, the seat of the European Agency on Monday 22^nd November 2004. 

The summit provided a full day of lectures and workshops in three specialist areas – Workshop 1 covered Procurement, design and planning, Workshop 2 the Management of OSH on construction sites and Workshop 3  The prevention of health problems in construction.

The Bilbao Declaration welcomed initiatives already taken by some Member States, citing the United Kingdom’s guidelines on public procurement as an example.  It also expressed its support for a plan by the Commission’s Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs plan to integrate good standards of safety and health into public procurement in 2005.  This would include publicly funded construction projects.

The Bilbao declaration called upon all signatory parties to act on the commitments they undertook and to report back on progress and future initiatives at a follow-up Construction Safety Summit, to be organised by the Agency in June 2006 and involving all key stakeholders that have joined this declaration. 

A Construction Safety Forum will be established in order to prepare the follow-up summit, to facilitate the exchange of information on the initiatives taken by the signatory organisations and to promote cooperation and joint action to implement the declaration. 

Signatories to the Bilbao Declaration on 22nd November 2004:

Ulrich Paetzold - European Construction Industry Federation; Harrie Bijen - European Federation of Building and Wood Workers; J. Antonio Calvo Delgado - European Builders’ Confederation; Pablo Bueno Tomás - European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations; John Graby - Architects’ Council of Europe; Diana Maxwell - European Council of Civil Engineers; Henk Schrama - Ministry for Social Affairs and Employment, Dutch Presidency of the European Union

Signed version of the Bilbao Declaration available in PDF format