European Week for Safety and Health at Work puts spotlight on safe maintenance
Publication date
24.10.2011
7.09
Type:News item
N5-58552
According to a study conducted in Finland, maintenance work is perceived as physically stressful: 61% of cleaners and 36% of property maintenance operatives consider their work to be physically hard. Ergonomic and work planning problems are found to be the most serious risks in maintenance work. This is explained by the fact that maintenance work is often performed in other people's workplace.
Maintenance includes both repair and prevention of faults and defects. Maintenance of plants, equipment, machines and the work environment helps eliminate hazards in the workplace. Service and maintenance work is performed in nearly all workplaces and it plays an important role in making workplaces safer. Well-maintained machines and equipment are safer for users but, on the other hand, there are many accidents in maintenance work. Even 20% of occupational accidents are associated with maintenance.
On assignment of the European Union, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (the Bilbao Agency) has since 2000 annually organized safety and health campaigns in the member states.
Further informationSenior Officer Hannu Ståhlhammar, tel. 0400 635 081, [email protected]
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