European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks, 2009

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER) was conducted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The survey covered organisations in all 27 European Union countries plus Croatia, Turkey, Switzerland and Norway. It questioned both managers and workers' health and safety representatives about the way health and safety risks are managed at their workplace, with a particular focus on psychosocial risks, i.e. work-related stress, violence and harassment. Developed with the support of governments and social partners at European level, ESENER aims to assist workplaces across Europe to deal more effectively with health and safety and to provide policy makers with cross-nationally comparable information relevant for the design and implementation of new policies. As well as looking at management practices, ESENER explores in detail how workers are involved in the management of safety and health at work, which is an important factor in the successful implementation of preventive measures at workplace level. The two questionnaires (management representative questionnaire and worker representative questionnaire) were developed by a team comprising experts in survey design and occupational health and safety (OSH), particularly psychosocial risks, together with EU-OSHA staff. In addition, a tripartite Advisory Group, comprising members of EU-OSHA's Governing Board and Bureau, played an important role in identifying useful questions for the Agency's stakeholders. More information about the methodology of ESENER is available on the EU-OSHA ESENER web site. Main Topics:The management questionnaire covered background information about the organisation, aspects of the general health and safety management in the establishment, health and safety risks, the management of psychosocial risks, the barriers for psychosocial risk management, and existing support and formal employee representation in OSH issues. The employee representative questionnaire covered the role of the employee representative in OSH management, existing resources and training of the employee representatives in OSH issues, general health and safety management, OSH and psychosocial risks, psychosocial risk management, and drivers for and barriers to psychosocial risk management.