VETTER E learning course (EN)

The introduction of European legislation has set minimum standards for the protection of workers, while allowing Member States to maintain or introduce more stringent measures. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union became legally binding, reinforcing the prominence of health and safety policies in EU legislation. 

Workplace safety rules: legal basis

According to Article 153 TFEU, the EU is able to adopt legislative acts (directives) on health and safety at work, in order to support and complement the activities of the Member States. To this end, minimum requirements have been established at EU level, leaving Member States free to introduce a higher degree of protection internally. The treaty also stipulates that the directives 

adopted must not impose administrative, financial and legal constraints which could hinder the creation and development of SMEs.

The adoption of the Single European Act in 1987 introduced the issue of health and safety at work into the EEC treaty for the first time, with an article that establishes the minimum requirements and gives the Council the power to adopt directives by qualified majority in matters of health and safety in the workplace.

Indeed, in the European Pillar of Social Rights (2017), the right of workers to a healthy, safe and adequate working environment and data protection is underlined:

a. Workers have the right to a high level of health and safety protection in the workplace;

b. Workers have the right to a working environment which is appropriate to their professional needs and which enables them to prolong their participation in the labour market;

c. Workers have the right to the protection of their personal data in the context of the employment relationship.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, a tripartite agency based in Bilbao, was set up in 1996. Its objective is to promote the sharing of knowledge and information in order to contribute to the promotion of a culture of prevention of the risk. The Agency developed the web platform for the Interactive Online Risk Assessment (OiRA) tool, which offers sectoral risk assessment tools in all languages ​​and suitable for SMEs, as well as an e-tool on dangerous substances, which offers specific advice for business on hazardous substances and chemicals as well as how to apply good practice and protective measures. Its European Risk Observatory monitors and forecasts new and emerging risks to enable preventive action. In 2004, 2009 and 2019, EU-OSHA conducted a survey of enterprises on new risks (European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks – ESENER). In 2016, it completed a pilot project on the health and safety of older workers, initiated by the Commission at the request of the European Parliament. In addition, since 2000 the Agency has been conducting annual awareness campaigns entitled "Healthy Workplaces", which touch on various health and safety issues. The 2020-2022 campaign focused on the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, while the 2023-2025 campaign will aim to raise awareness of the impact of new technologies on work as well as the related challenges and opportunities on health and safety at work.

Workplace safety modes of conduct. Behaviour Analysis: behavioural analysis for workplace safety

The behaviour of individuals at work is a component that is often underestimated but which, in reality, has enormous importance on the health and safety of workers. According to some sector studies, on average, about 80% of accidents at work are attributable to unsafe behaviour by people. In fact, this is immediately evident if we consider those companies which, while using the same or very similar machinery and procedures, present very different data in the number of accidents and injuries.

Current safety management systems have limitations that cannot be overlooked. First of all, the “punitive” approach. The punishment of the worker, fined for transgressing a safety rule, if not adequately motivated, may push him in the future to 

• continue that behaviour, but trying to keep it hidden;

• limit his correct behaviour only at the time of the inspection.

Behaviour Analysis, on the other hand, is based on positive feedback and an incentive-type model. It represents a real science, which has its roots in the concepts presented by the American psychologist Burrhus Skinner (in particular in his works “Science and Human Behaviour”, “Verbal Behaviour” and “Contingencies of Reinforcement”).

Behavioural analysis ranks among the 3 types of sciences, i.e. the natural sciences exact (mathematics, logic, geometry); natural (biology, chemistry, physics, behaviour analysis, etc.); human/social (philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, etc.).

Thus, BA does not focus as its first element on serious or fatal accidents, but starts from the analysis of the innumerable unsafe behaviours that underlie the evidence on safety. To intervene, therefore, upstream of the accident (instead of a posteriori).

Application method of Behaviour Analysis

The ABC model of Behaviour Analysis

First of all, one must avoid confusing 'attitude' with 'behaviour'. The latter is in fact everything that is performed (action), verbalised (language) or manifested (emotion).

Skinner's paradigm of operant conditioning is called the ABC model (or Three Contingencies Model). These three letters indicate the three elements of a behaviour equation, which consists of:

A) Antecedents: the antecedent stimulus, which evokes (and does not cause) the behaviour;

B) Behaviour: the behaviour emitted;

C) Consequences: received as a result of the behaviour.

Thus, what regulates, inhibits and modifies the behaviour is not so much the antecedents, which merely evoke it (i.e. prompt the subject to emit the behaviour the first time, but only if it is already present in his repertoire). Rather, it is the stimuli following it that make the difference.

This means that if the consequence received after the behaviour is pleasant, the probability of emitting the behaviour increases; if the consequence is negative, i.e. punitive, the probability of re-emitting the behaviour in the presence of the punitive element is markedly reduced.

The characteristics of the consequence, therefore, can influence the behaviour. For example, one must consider that one does not usually get injured the first time one engages in risky behaviour, so it may not always be easy to recognise risky behaviour. Consequences may, in fact occur immediately or in the future have certain or uncertain consistency; assume positive or negative significance.

According to studies, the most effective way to influence behaviour is therefore to determine consequences that are positive, immediate and certain.

Behaviour Analysis is not an approach or a philosophy. As mentioned above, it has the advantage of being scientific and therefore reproducible.

The ABC model is applied starting with the definition of a behavioural checklist, to be used as a guide for observing safe behaviour among colleagues. The items on such a list should include Yes/No answers regarding acceptable behaviour, in order to reduce the observers' interpretative discretion.

It is also important to:

• give feedback - especially positive feedback - on the observed behaviour and provide an immediate analysis of the causes;

• enter and analyse data, department by department;

• assign and remove risk conditions detected during observations, and assign new safety targets (again, department by department);

• provide for monthly meetings between the supervisor and workers on safety behaviour in the department;

• provide for a system of rewards for improvement targets achieved (to workers, observers and supervisors).

Behavioural analysis makes it possible not only to comply with the provisions of Legislative Decree 81/08, which provides for the obligation of supervision on the part of the employer and “the observance by individual workers of the regulations in force, as well as the company provisions on safety and hygiene at work and the use of collective means of protection and individual protection devices made available to them”. But also, to concretely reduce accidents at work, thanks to the adoption of safe behaviour, to be kept stable over time.

Behaviour Analysis can therefore be a winning tool for companies that want to protect their workers with regard to health and safety.