The occupational safety and health authority's enforcement data system Vera contains data on employers and workplaces as well as the authority's decisions and enforcement measures. The occupational safety and health authority uses Vera for planning and carrying out enforcement measures.
Description
The data published as a result of a joint project between the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the occupational safety and health authority is the first open data publication in the field of occupational safety and health enforcement. The data includes inspections between 2017-2023 and consists of nearly 160,000 workplace inspections. There are nearly 63,000 inspected employers and more than 79,000 workplaces.
Publication of the data in the Work-Life Knowledge service is part of the open data publication plan occupational safety and health enforcement. Open data is based on the principles of transparency of governance, sharing of data, interoperability and shared use. These principles were approved in the Government decision-in-principle on improving the accessibility and reuse of public sector digital data (3 March 2011).
What the indicators describe
The data comprises occupational safety and health inspections during 2017-2023. In addition to enabling comparison of the number of occupational safety and health inspections per sector and subject matter, the indicators provide information on the lawfulness of the inspected matters. If the inspected matter is not lawful in the workplace, the health inspector will impose an obligation. The analysis page provides more information about the different obligations.
In order for the published data to be understandable and usable, the list of inspected topics is divided into themes. These themes are as follows:
- Employment relationship (e.g. employment agreements, annual holidays)
- Physical work environment (e.g. asbestos, vibration)
- Psychosocial work environment (e.g. harassment, inappropriate behaviour, psychosocial workload)
- Safety management (e.g. general obligations of the employer, prevention of occupational accidents)
- Shadow economy (e.g. contractors' obligations and liability, foreign employees)
Some inspected matters may belong to two different themes. For example, the matter “Work that is dangerous for young workers” is part of the themes of physical work environment as well as safety management. Another example of the combination of two themes is “Carcinogenic factors and mutagens”. “Use of temporary agency labour” covers both the themes of employment relationship and shadow economy.
The Work-Life Knowledge service also offers an analysis article about the survey: The task of occupational safety and health enforcement is to ensure that working in Finland is healthy, safe and fair.
