Eight more pan-European and multinational organizations have signed up to support the Healthy Workplaces campaign organized by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), bringing the total number of official campaign partners to 17, according to an EU-OSHA press release.

The goal of the Healthy Workplaces campaign is to reduce work-related accidents and illnesses by focusing on the assessment of health and safety risks, as it is the first essential step for effective workplace safety and health management, according to EU-OSHA. Participating organizations include European employers’ and workers’ federations, multinational companies from various industry sectors, research platforms, non-profit organizations and NGOs. By signing up as official partners, these organizations commit themselves to organize events on risk assessment and to disseminate the campaign messages and material. Other activities include the production of workplace safety and health videos, photo competitions or training sessions with clients, partners and contractors.

“To have 17 official campaign partners on board even before we enter the second campaign year – this is well beyond our initial expectations,” said Jukka Takala, director of EU-OSHA. “We are very proud that so many renowned organizations decided to help us raise awareness on risk assessment, and we are actually in touch with a number of other federations and multinationals. So this number will continue to grow in the future.”

Takala also stressed the importance of the campaign subject. “Risk assessment is the key to preventing accidents and ill health at work. Although it is a legal obligation throughout Europe, there are still companies that do not assess their risks regularly, especially in SMEs, and we would like to see this change.”