OHSG - Occupational Health & Safety Group

Chairman : Benoit Joly, INFRABEL

Vice-Chairman : Colin Clifton, South Eastern Railway

Members: OHSG is composed of occupational health and safety experts from the larger European railways and agencies.: LSER (ATOC), Infrabel, Network Rail, Prorail, RFI, SBB, SNCF, Trafikverket, Trenitalia, ZSR.

Members of other railways attend on a subject specific basis.

Meetings: 3 to 4 times a year

 General information

The Group’s mission and purpose includes:

• 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.

 Work completed

 Current projects

On-going work includes:

• Discussion and analysis of typical occupational accidents within the railway sector
• Examination and adaptation of technical directives on occupational health and safety
• Collaboration with and contribution to the annual EU Safety Week
• Collaboration with CER CER Community of the European Railways and the International Union of Railway Medical Services (UIMC) within the domains of staff selection, developing human resources and occupational medicine.

 Work plan for the future

• Management of noise risk
• Development of guidance on effective accident and incident investigation
• Statistics on accidents at work
• Study of safety distance from open tracks at different speeds of operation

 Meetings

• [OHSG Meetings: http://uic.org/baseinfo/reunion/reu...]

 UIC Contact

Meryem BELHAJ Senior Advisor - International Training belhaj@uic.org