Occupational Health & Safety

Occupational Health & Safety Group (OHSG)

Chair: Leslie Steen, Infrabel
UIC Coordinator: Virginie Papillault
Meetings: 3 to 4 times a year

OHS Group objectives

promoting effective management of occupational health and safety throughout UIC member organisations;
seeking and sharing examples of best practice to encourage mutual learning and convergence in occupational health and safety management practices;
reviewing occupational health and safety measures applied by the member companies and national agencies and identifying strengths and areas for development;
identifying and, where it is in the railways’ interest, seeking to influence relevant European directives and standards affecting occupational health and safety;
considering methods for implementing occupational health and safety directives and standards appropriately within the railway context.

Current projects

On-going work includes:

Statistics on accidents at work
Examination and adaptation of technical directives on occupational health and safety
Development of guidance on effective accident and incident investigation
Study of safety distance from open tracks at different speeds of operation
Alcohol and drugs testing policy
Electronical hearing protection / Exchanging information about PPE

Benchmark and cooperation:

Discussion and analysis of typical occupational accidents within the railway sector
Collaboration with and contribution to the annual EU Safety Week
Collaboration with CER and the International Union of Railway Medical Services (UIMC) within the domains of staff selection, developing human resources and occupational medicine

Members

Occupational health and safety experts from the larger European railways and agencies: Infrabel (Belgium), Finnish Transport Agency (Finland), RSSB (UK), Trafikverket (Sweden), Trenitalia (Italy), Irish Rail (Ireland), LTG JSC “Lithuanian Railways” (Lithuania) and ZSR (Slovaquia). Members of other railways attend on a subject-specific basis.