Safety in the danger zone

An ideal location to promote safety in the workplace.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, which also goes by the acronym of OSHA, launched a campaign on safety in the workplace last Friday (20 April). László Andor, the European commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, was one of those speaking at the launch. 

Artwork for the campaign features stylised figures (think PlayMobil) wearing protective earphones, a helmet, a reflective jacket, a mask.

In honour of the occasion, somebody with a rich sense of humour decided to attach a banner with the message: “Working together for risk prevention” to the European Commission’s Charlemagne building. Yes, that’s right, a building whose surrounds were taped off recently because of the danger of falling tiles (Entre Nous, 13-19 October 2011).

The banner hangs just above an eccentric conjunction of two roads, two bicycle lanes, an improvised taxi rank, and a hole in the ground. The figures on the banner have an eagle-eye view of Commission officials emerging in their cars from the Berlaymont car park and going the wrong way round the rue Stevin roundabout. On the other side of the rue de la Loi from the Charlemagne building, construction workers were last week swinging containers full of concrete debris over the heads of pedestrians, while cyclists wove in and out of the concrete mixers and taxis.

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Perhaps it’s just as well that the safety in the workplace campaign is due to run for two years: there is still a bit of work to do.