A good health and safety system reduces the risk of accidents and health complaints. An important part of the health and safety system is the legally required risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E). This is a tool to recognise and control occupational risks. An up-to-date, dynamic RI&E ensures that an employer knows the risks in his company and can take appropriate measures to protect employees. This obligation is still unknown to many employers. To change that, the Netherlands Labour Authority has implemented the described inspection programme.

The priority areas for inspections in the described programme were selected on the basis of inspectorate's own database of workplace accidents and occupational diseases, EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021-2027 and SLIC recommendations. The reasons for selecting chosen sectors of economy were: high rates of workplace accidents, including fatal and serious accidents, high morbidity rates of occupational diseases and statistics on low rate of compliance concerning risk assessment and evaluation, especially in small enterprises. IT tools are used to identify the target groups: combined data on compliance, accidents, diseases caused by work integrated in a specific method called IRA (integrated risk analysis) of the Netherlands Labour Authority.

Both the average duration of a workplace visit and the average duration of the activities carried out in the office of the labour inspectorate were within one day, between 2 and 4 hours. 8 regional teams of inspectors were involved in the inspection activities (nearly all inspectors specialized in OSH are participating in these regional teams). They were instructed during kickoff meetings based on a specific project plan and handouts.

Establishments covered by inspections in the framework were provided with information and trainings. Online information campaigns and information provision in collaboration with employer organisations about the importance of health and safety care and the legally required documents / risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E) were organized. Also a letter with the announcement on the project and information about the legally required documents/risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E) was send to a preselected target group of employers within a chosen sector.

The Netherlands Labour Authority applies a new standard procedure in the investigation of workplace accidents (following a pilot). In this new approach, the employer conducts the accident investigation themselves and prepares an employer's report based on this. In the employer’s report he indicates what improvement measures need to be taken. The labour inspectorate reviews the employer's report and improvement plan. If the inspector deems the employer's report and/or improvement plan insufficient on the first review, the employer is given a second chance to revise the report and plan. Once the report and improvement plan are approved, the Labour Authority does not enforce any penalties, unless the inspector identifies a violation during a follow-up inspection.

All accidents at work are investigated in the framework of described inspection programme. The predominant aims of workplace inspections are: to enforce compliance with the law in the inspected entities and to increase awareness of the importance of OSH-measures to prevent accidents at work.

The inspection programme was implemented after preliminary discussions with the trade unions and employers’ organisations.

The average duration of a workplace visit conducted in the framework of the inspection programme takes a total of 25 hours per accident investigation (the on-site investigation takes approximately 6 hours, while assessing the report and contact with the employer takes approximately 20 hours).

All labour inspectors from the Netherlands Labour Authority involved in accident investigation take part in the described inspection programme. Additional training was provided by the same team for all labour inspectors involved in the programme. The labour inspectors are equipped with the rationale of the inspection activities, description of the inspection activities’ objectives, description of the ways in which to implement the activities, checklists, description of the reporting requirements and promotional and communication materials for employers.

Some establishments covered by inspections were provided with information and training prior to the commencement of the inspection task. In the trainings the investigation guideline describing how to investigate the work accident was introduced to trained employers.

In 2011, the Netherlands Labour Authority discovered that numerous employers were not compliant with the law due to a lack of information. The aim of the project is to assist the employers seeking compliance and to make legislation accessible to them.

The aim of the project is to assist the employers seeking to comply with OSH legislation by providing them access to legislation and enabling them to familiarize themselves with it. The focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises that want to operate in compliance with the law but experience objective difficulties in achieving this. The criterion for selecting the target group was a risk analysis.

The Netherlands Labour Authority, in collaboration with a communication agency, developed a website with checklists for employers. The main objective was to produce a user-friendly and accessible website. Currently the checklists are promoted in various sectors in different ways, e.g. in social media or during inspections conducted by labour inspectors. The communication strategies for each sector differ, although the tool – the checklist – remains the same for all sectors. This non-inspection activity covers various sectors, in particular those with higher risks regarding decent work, health and safety at work, psychosocial workload and working with hazardous substances. Multiple activities have been carried out so as to implement the project, among others: visits in enterprises, distribution of publications and audio-visual materials, publishing information on websites, paid online campaign, posting on social media (FB, Instagram, X), e-mailing/newsletter.