European Trade Union Committee for Education

OiRA is an online interactive tool, designed to assess occupational health and safety risks in higher education and research institutions. Beyond being a cornerstone to create safe and healthy education environments, risk assessment is also a mandatory obligation for all education employers in the EU. Jointly developed by ETUCE and EFEE, in collaboration with EU-OSHA, this free, easy-to-use tool is specifically tailored to the unique needs of academic and research settings. It provides a comprehensive approach to assessing health and safety risks and building concrete action plans to address them.

• 2024 OiRA for HER – Online Interactive risk assessment tool for Higher Education and Research
• 2019 : OiRa Tool for the Early Childhood Education and Care Sector

Description

ETUCE is committed to shine a light on the key role of education trade unions in promoting decent workplaces in the education sector for a healthier working life.

As in previous years, ETUCE was an Official Campaign Partner of EU-OSHA's 2017 'Healthy Workplaces for All Ages' campaign. In relation to this, ETUCE and The European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) launched a 1.5-year EU social-dialogue project entitled 'OiRA – Online Interactive Risk Assessment Tool'. This builds on ETUCE and EFEE's previous EU-funded project 'Social Partners Promoting Decent Workplaces in Education - Joint Social Partner Initiatives at EU, National, Regional and Local Level to Prevent and Combat Psychosocial Hazards in Education'.

The OiRA project provided the basis for cooperation between EU-OSHA and the European social partners in developing two OiRA tools which can underpin similar national tools in the future.

The project consisted of the development and implementation of two OiRA tools: one on early childhood education and other focused on secondary education level. The online tools are a collection of good practices and policy recommendations, fed with legal insights, real life examples and research-based information, concluding in a sort of self-assessment test. The online tools are supported by promotional and dissemination material.

Topics addressed

The education sector is characterised by plenty of risk factors, especially psychosocial risks, which include stress, harassment and violence. The online tools are based on input from the social partners and the outcomes of former projects carried out in the sector.

Among other aims, the OiRA project contributed to the following issues:

• Promoting decent and healthy workplaces in education for teachers and education employers;
• Managing, combating and preventing physical health related problems (asbestos, heating, light, humidity, musculoskeletal problems, etc) as well as mental health related issues (psychosocial risks, harassment, work-related stress, risks associated to ICT and cyber-security, etc) for teachers and educational personnel in a broad sense;
• Exchanging, disseminating and recommending good practices on safety and health in the education sector for teachers.

Project Activities

The project partners gathered for four Steering Group meetings with representatives of ETUCE and EFEE, as well as representatives of the EU OSHA, in order to discuss the content, project aims and outcomes of the OiRA Tools:

• 18 April 2018, in Bilbao, Spain
• 6 November 2018 in Dublin, Ireland
• February 2019 in London, United Kingdom
• 10 May 2019 Brussels, Belgium

Outcomes of the OiRA project

The OiRA tools were launched on 5 October 2019 on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day. A video in support of the launch of the tools, including interventions from ETUCE President Christine Blower, EFEE President Michael Moriarty, ETUCE European Director Susan Flocken, and EFEE General Secretary Daniel Wisniewski was published.

• To access the OiRa Tool for the Early Childhood Education and Care Sector, please click here
• To access the OiRA Tool for the Secondary Education Sector, please click here
• To read the ETUCE and EFEE Press Release published at the occasion of the launch of the OiRA tools, please click here.

Advisory Group

The project was led by an Advisory Group who supervised and managed the project activities with their national expertise under the co-ordination of ETUCE. The OiRA project was conducted with guidance and advice provided by the national experts. The Advisory Group meetings are expected to take place in Bilbao (in the EU-OSHA’s premises, Spain) and in other locations across EU countries.