Irish workers confident health and safety issues will be addressed in their workplaces

Wednesday 4th April

Irish workers feel better informed of workplace health and safety risks than their European counterparts according to a pan European opinion poll. The poll, which was carried out on behalf of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, stated that 88% of Irish workers surveyed feel well informed about health and safety risks at work, topping the poll ahead of UK and Finland.

Ireland also scored highly, and second to the UK, when 89% of Irish workers responded that they were confident that if they raised a health and safety problem with their supervisor it would be addressed.

83% of Irish workers felt good health and safety practices should be followed in order to remain economically competitive, this was broadly in line with the European average.

Many workers across Europe, particularly in Greece (93%) and Bulgaria (87%), believe that job-related stress will increase over the next 5 years. In Ireland 69% of workers believe that job-related stress will increase.

Martin O’Halloran CEO of the Health and Safety Authority says he was pleased with the results from an Irish point of view, “When a similar survey was carried out in 2009, Ireland scored highly in relation to awareness of workplace health and safety issues, so I am pleased that attitudes remain positive.  The overall picture shows that Irish workers can see the personal and economic benefits of good safety standards.”

The pan European poll on occupational health and safety was carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the European agency and involved 35,540 workers in 36 countries (approx. 1000 per country).  The survey was carried out in Ireland during November 2011.