Introduction

The aim of this publication is to present the results of the ILO survey on safety and health conditions at the workplace and the impact of work activities on the general environment in eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The survey was carried out in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic and Ukraine. It was the primary means within the Dutch-funded project to gather information on safety and health at the workplace and work-related environmental health in the region. It should be seen in the context of changing industrial relations to a more active involvement with trade unions representing their members’ health and safety concerns, and bargaining with employers in privatised industries.

The report is based on a questionnaire survey carried out among trade union representatives at the workplace. The questionnaire was designed to build up a picture of the main concerns and experiences of workers on the shop-floor, and, as such, to use as a basis for collective action to help improve working conditions in the workplace and nationally.

From the start, the intention was to focus on the subjective experiences of health and safety or other union representatives. Using a questionnaire in this way is only one means of obtaining information, but it is one that involves union members and encourages their support for union policies on occupational safety and health and environmental issues. For any trade union action for improvements in working conditions depends on the support of members. "Objective" concerns will be of little use if they are at variance with workers’ perceived priorities and thus receive no support.

The overall purposes of the survey were several:

• in the first instance, it acted as an awareness-raising exercise for workers and for union representatives;
• it gave trade union policy-makers comprehensive information on the priority concerns of their members, the extent of safety, health, organisational and environmental problems at and around the workplaces, and the real-life measures and structures available at the workplace to deal with these issues; and
• the information obtained could be used to develop:
  • improved strategies and approaches for future management of occupational safety and health and the impact of work on the environment;
  • general education and training programmes for union members and representatives; and
  • specific training on priority issues.

The survey and its findings were the result of a relatively long process, starting with an ILO regional seminar in Tallinn, Estonia, in December 1997, where the idea of carrying out a survey was first discussed by trade unions. Several Confederations expressed their interest in participating and those that followed up with written commitment through the official channels of their union were chosen to take part in the survey.

A questionnaire (see the questions) was developed by the ILO and which was used by all participating unions in the eight countries of the study. The advantage of using an identical questionnaire was that an international comparison could be made. This was deemed to outweigh the disadvantage of not being able to adapt the questionnaire to take account of national conditions and differences. Similar reasoning was behind the decision to make the questionnaire entirely composed of hard data questions with no open-ended options.

The questionnaire included 92 multiple choice questions that covered:

• Oganisational information:
  • Respondents
  • Field of activity (sector)
  • Size of workplace and company and turnover of employees
  • Property form and ownership
  • Number of women workers
  • Employment status of workforce
  • Trade union membership level
• Health and safety issues:
  • Accidents
  • Safety
  • Health
  • Organisational issues
  • Work-related environmental impact
  • Symptoms and diseases
• Monitoring at the workplace
• Occupational health services:
  • Health examinations
  • Occupational health service providers
  • Measures taken after health examinations
  • Health records
• Controls at the workplace
  • Worksite design
  • Ventilation
  • Dangerous substances
  • Rotation of workers
  • Personal protective equipment
  • Hazard pay
• Training
• Information
  • Labels
  • List of substances used in the workplace
  • Chemical safety data sheets
  • Outside information sources
• Structures dealing with safety and health and environmental issues at the workplace
  • Health and safety regulations
  • Programmes and policies
  • Records kept by management
  • Collective agreements
  • Health and safety committees
  • Worker participation rights
  • Time spent on oshe duties
  • Trade union policies and programmes
  • Record-keeping by trade unions.

The questionnaire was translated into the national languages of the survey countries and underwent a small pilot exercise in Hungary. This allowed for final modifications in the questionnaire and written guidelines concerning objectives, target groups, procedures, etc.

The selection of workplaces and worker representatives to receive the questionnaire, and the numbers of questionnaires were done in close cooperation with the national trade union Confederations. The methods of distribution and data collection were left to the Confederations to decide, and overall national coordination was ensured by a selected representative from each Confederation. Altogether, 4,016 replies were received and their numbers varied considerably between the survey countries. Because only unionised workplaces were canvassed, it was suggested that the survey results were not representative of workplaces in general in the countries surveyed. However, one of the primary aims of the survey was to provide the unions with information to use as a basis to further develop their occupational safety and health and environmental policies, and to address non-unionised workers’ needs in this area.

The completed questionnaires were forwarded to ILO-CEET in Budapest, where questions were encoded for processing and analysis. The following pages give an analysis of the survey results as they relate to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Slovakia and Ukraine. The questionnaire and the original Excel files have been made available to the Confederations concerned so that they have the opportunity to further process the information and use the database in a prospective manner.