Can you remember a public opinion poll in the U.S. on job safety issues? I can’t. But in Europe it is a different story.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) commissioned Ipsos MORI to develop and conduct a survey of the general public about occupational health and safety.

Ipsos MORI carried out surveys in 36 European countries, conducting a total of 35,540
interviews between 24th October 2011 and 17th January 2012.

Here are the questions:

● Do you think the number of people suffering from job-related stress will increase, decrease or stay around the same over the next five years?

● Regarding safety and health risks at the workplace, do you consider yourself….? (Very well informed | Fairly well informed | Not very well informed | Not at all informed)

● Many European governments are considering or have decided to increase their retirement age because people are living for longer. In your view, how important, if at all, are good health and safety practices to help people work for longer before they retire? (Very important | Fairly important | Not very important | Not at all important)

● If you raised a health and safety problem in your workplace with your supervisor, how confident are you that it would be addressed? (Very confident | Fairly confident | Not very confident | Not at all confident)

● How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement:
In order to be economically competitive, workplaces need to follow good health and safety practices? (Strongly agree | Tend to agree | Neither agree nor disagree | Tend to disagree | Strongly disagree)

Key findings across Europe:

1 — Job stress will only increase

Around eight in ten of the general public across Europe think that the number of
people who will suffer from stress over the next five years will increase (77%), with as
many as 49% expecting this to ‘increase a lot’. While not directly comparable, the
ESENER survey similarly found around three-quarters of managers who think stress
is an issue (79%).

Views differ to some extent between the active (working) and inactive
population (80% and 75% expect job-related stress to increase), with workers
significantly more likely to expect it to ‘increase a lot’ (52% vs. 46%).

There are large national variations in those who expect job-related stress to
‘increase a lot’. Those in Greece are most worried about rising stress (83%
‘increase a lot’), while Norwegians are least worried (16% ‘increase a lot’).

2 — Occupational safety and health benefits economic competitiveness and helping people work longer

Most Europeans agree that good occupational safety and health practices are
necessary for economic competitiveness (86% across Europe agree; 56% ‘strongly
agree’).

Views are similar among the active (working) and inactive population (86%
and 85% agree respectively).

Among the general public, there is some variation by age, with 61% of those
aged 55+ ‘strongly agreeing’ compared to 49% of those aged under 35.

Regional differences are not particularly apparent, although there are some
noticeable national differences within regions. Cyprus has the highest
proportion of people who ‘strongly agree’ that workplaces need to follow good
occupational health and safety practices in order to be economically
competitive (81%) while Spain has the lowest (35% ‘strongly agree’).

3 — Good occupational health and safety practices are important to help people work longer before they retire (87%, including 56% who say they are ‘very important’).

This high level of agreement is evident across all age groups and types of
employment..

Regional differences are not particularly apparent, although there are some
noticeable national differences within regions. Iceland has the highest
proportion of people who consider good occupational health and safety
practices as ‘very important’ to help people work longer before they retire
(77%) and Hungary has the lowest (37% say it is ‘very important’).

There is broad consensus that good occupational health and safety practices are
important to help people work longer before they retire (87%, including 56% who say
they are ‘very important’).

4 — Most employees confident safety problems will be addressed

On the whole, workers feel confident that an occupational health and safety problem
raised with a supervisor would be addressed (74%, including 40% ‘very confident’),
although again a significant minority are not confident about this (23%, including 7%
‘not at all confident’).

Employees working for temp agencies are more doubtful than the average employee that health and safety problems raised with their supervisor would be addressed (39% not very or at all confident compared to 23% for the average employee).

Employees in small companies are less likely to feel confident than those in larger companies. For example, 27% of those in companies with less than 10 employees do not feel confident compared to just 19% in companies with more than 250 employees.

Regional patterns are evident with the Nordic countries and North Western Europe most likely to feel confident that a health and safety problem raised would be addressed and the South Eastern and Southern European countries least likely.

5 — 80% of workers feel well-informed about safety and health

Generally Europeans consider themselves well informed about occupational health
and safety (67%, including 24% ‘very well informed’), but a significant minority say
they are not informed (27%, including 8% ‘not at all informed’).

Around eight in ten workers are informed (82%, including 33% ‘very well informed’) compared to half of those who do not work (50% informed and 14% ‘very well informed’).

Again, there is a clear difference between the average (active) worker and those working for temp agencies. Around a third of people working for temp agencies say they are not informed on occupational health and safety risks (32%), compared to only 18% of all who are actively employed.

Organisation size also appears to affect the extent to which employees feel informed. For example, 42% of those who work in large organisations (with 250+ employees) consider themselves ‘very well informed’ compared to only 28% in companies with less than 10 employees.

Among the general public, younger and older people are more likely to feel not informed (29% of 18-34 year olds and 31% aged 55+ compared to only 22% aged 35-54). As in the 2009 poll, men feel better informed than women on health and safety risks at the workplace (70% vs. 64%). There is also a difference in feeling ‘very well informed’ (28% for men vs. 21% for women).

Similar regional differences are apparent with the Nordic countries and those in North Western Europe most likely to feel ‘very well informed’ and South Eastern and Southern European countries the least.