Online interactive Risk Assessment
OiRA – Online interactive Risk Assessment – is a web platform that enables the creation of sectoral risk assessment tools in any language in an easy and standardised way.
It is developed and maintained by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and it is based on the Dutch risk assessment instrument RI&E.
Why was the OiRA project developed?
Proper risk assessment is the key to healthy workplaces. However, carrying out risk assessments can be quite challenging, particularly for micro and small enterprises (MSEs), which may lack the resources or the occupational safety and health (OSH) know-how to do so effectively.
OiRA aims to overcome this. It is the first initiative at EU level to encourage European MSEs to assess their risks (mainly via Member States and social partners — employers’ and employees’ organisations — at EU and Member State levels).
What are OiRA’s objectives?
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At European level:
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to increase the number of MSEs in Europe assessing and managing their occupational risks;
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to contribute (through proper risk assessment) to reducing the number of occupational accidents and diseases, and to improving working conditions;
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to help enterprises (through proper risk assessment) to become more competitive (by cutting costs arising from occupation accidents and illness, reducing rates of sick leave, etc.).
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At national and sectoral levels:
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to put practical OiRA tools at the disposal of micro and small organisations through their websites and to promote their use;
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to contribute to national objectives of reducing the number of occupational diseases and accidents by putting OiRA tools at the disposal of enterprises.
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At company level:
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to ensure the safety and health of workers (a general duty of employers and enterprises) by encouraging the use of OiRA tools at company and shop floor levels, thereby putting in place a sound risk assessment process;
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to demystify the process of risk assessment;
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to improve working conditions by promoting use of the tool to assess occupational risks, thus improving companies’ performance.
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How does OiRA work?
OiRA is an online platform that consists of the OiRA tool generator (where developers can create sectoral tools) and OiRA sectoral tools, which are accessible through an interactive website.
The OiRA tool generator is provided free of charge to sectoral partners at EU and national levels, and to EU and national authorities.
sectoral partners at EU or national level and EU or national authorities (the developers of the tools) can use the OiRA tool generator to create risk assessment tools for different sectors, for example the hairdressing sector. These tools — OiRA sectoral tools — are then made available for MSEs to use to carry out risk assessments.