Trade union advocates worker participation in quality certification

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Companies are increasingly using quality certification in Belgium. However, training courses, seminars and conferences have always been organised by the employers' side. Trade unions have often neglected these issues but in 1999 the metalworking federation of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions is advocating worker participation in these areas through company-level works councils and health and safety committees.

Over recent years, employers in Belgium have taken on the concept of "quality", defining it in their own ways. This has led not only to the introduction of new methods of shopfloor management, such as "total quality" and "quality circles", but also to the introduction of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards, ISO 9000 (a set of standardised requirements for quality management systems) and ISO 14000 (standardised requirements for environmental management), and of certification procedures on safety at work, like VCA (Veiligheid check-list aannemers/Check-list securité des entreprises) and BeSaCC (Belgian Safety Criteria for Contractors). The ISO standards aim to improve the quality of operations in a firm in order to satisfy all parties' express or implied needs on a continuous basis. The VCA certificate and the BeSaCC check-list aim to ensure workplace health and safety.

There is no provision for the application of an ISO standard to the management of health, hygiene or safety. However, health and safety seem to have been integrated little by little into the procedures, and trade unions see a major risk that these areas may not be considered by a company's joint management-employee bodies.

Problems experienced

Quality certification is often presented by employers as one of the essential elements in their company's viability. However, companies using such systems reportedly often fail to disclose information about them to staff. A summary will generally be submitted to the works council and, in the best cases, to the workers as well. This information will typically praise the notion of certification and cover the role that each person must play to make it succeed. On the other hand, prior information and especially worker participation in the process of certification itself, which directly affects staff, seems totally neglected. Workers may later experience real difficulty in applying the scheme's recommendations and it is not unusual to hear that they are being implemented only on the occasion of a visit by an inspector.

Critics claim that workplace health and safety committee s - the joint bodies responsible for health and safety in companies - should be debating the employers' "appropriation" of "quality" and negotiating its definition. From this viewpoint, certification determines working conditions and therefore ought to fall within the remit of the health and safety committee.

Moreover, with respect to compliance with health and safety regulations, increased subcontracting has led to a higher incidence of industrial accidents. The reasons put forward include workers' lack of experience or information, competition between subcontractors and the fact that subcontracted activities are often hazardous. These factors have, it seems, led to such an increase in risk that it has become necessary to check the safety policies of outsourced companies. The VCA system of health and safety certification developed by Dutch petrochemical companies has been adopted by a number of Belgian companies, and has often become a necessary condition for the provision of products or services to a large, subcontracting company.

However, the way in which the VCA certification is issued minimises certain important factors, according to critics: for instance, only the frequency of accidents, not their seriousness, is taken into account. Other aspects which have been criticised include the following:

• there are no plans to include the social partners in the procedures. Most of the time workers' representatives on the health and safety committee are said to be presented with a fait accompli, despite the fact that in matters of prevention the law requires consultation;

• some workers have to go on courses and pass exams related to the scheme, but it is feared that failing them might lead to dismissal. Some trade union delegation s have therefore demanded that workers should be allowed to sit the exams as many times as necessary; and

• there is a risk that the VCA system may lead to the concealment of minor injuries at work in an attempt to obtain or keep the certificate. In one firm, the union delegation has accepted the VCA system only on condition that the employer implements means of reducing industrial accidents.

Solutions proposed

For their part, a large number of employers believe that the VCA system is too restrictive. The Federation of Belgian Enterprises (Fédération des Entreprises de Belgique/Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen, FEB/VBO) has drawn up its own list of criteria for subcontractors: the BeSaCC checklist. As far as the Federation is concerned, its own system is better suited to Belgian rules and is also less expensive. It is for the subcontractor to declare that it meets the required standards and to agree to be inspected, if needs be, by the contractor or by a subcommittee set up at FEB/VBO.

The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) considers the BeSaCC checklist to be less strict than the VCA standard, but also thinks that its introduction represents progress in terms of health and safety. However, the CSC representatives on workplace health and safety committees, and the trade union delegates in companies, do not accept the certificates as bankable assurances and have been asked to remain vigilant. For CSC/ACV, while employment remains the main concern, the conditions under which this employment occurs should increasingly be influenced by workers and their organisations. This implies that certification should be analysed by unions and counter-proposals made.

The trade unions believe that they should be associated with and involved in these quality and environmental policies, the definition of objectives, evaluation and the monitoring of management and audit systems. However, they also believe that such an association in no way implies sharing responsibility for changes in work organisation that would conflict with workers' interests, such as compulsory increases in productivity and greater flexibility, or the surveillance of individual workers. They see their job as being to be attentive to workers' reactions - both complaints and positive attitudes - and to assess how these policies feed into improving motivation, autonomy and responsibility, as well as their effects on remuneration and working conditions.

An example cited of this approach relates to a cleaning firm where the definition of the ISO standard led to the reorganisation of all staff files. Each worker's curriculum vitae had to be updated. At first sight, this move seemed to be aimed at achieving greater efficiency and a better overview for the employer of its whole workforce. The union delegates, however, fearing that the files would make it possible to regrade workers, asked that more account be taken of experience than of diplomas.

CSC/ACV's metalworkers' federation (Centrale Chrétienne des métallurgistes de Belgique/Christelijke Centrale der Metaalbewerkers van België, CCMB) encourages union delegations to question the real need for certification. It also maintains that a subcommittee ought to be set up within the works council to supervise the formulation of the rules, standards and criteria for the procedures and, in particular, to watch over the rights of all workers without discrimination. CCMB also thinks that the health and safety committee should control working conditions, risk analysis, the overall health and safety strategy and the annual action plan, as well as the implementation of the law on dangerous substances and environmental permits.

Finally, CCMB condemns the fact that by making the worker the "actor" in the production process, certification stresses responsibility, which means multiskilling and self-discipline for workers but also responsibility in the event of an accident. This, it is claimed, is because, although the workers are legally protected, they are sometimes forced to pay for broken parts or to conceal an industrial injury.

Commentary

Involvement in drawing up the criteria embodied in the various processes of certification, in particular with respect to the quality of working conditions, can guarantee improved working conditions for employees, and not only in terms of production. However, workers' participation in these procedures must be channelled through statutory consultation bodies: works councils and workplace health and safety committees. In terms of worker representation, trade union delegates are experts, so they must be heard to ensure that democracy remains a living force within the enterprise. (Catherine Margraff, Service d'Etudes de la Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens, CSC-Métal)

Sources: "L'environnement et l'entreprise: Guide pratique pour les travailleurs", V Porot, FEC and IWERF (1997); "L'évaluation des risques sur les lieux de travail: Guide pour une intervention syndicale", Edition BTS (to be published shortly); "Syndicaliser la sécurité et l'hygiène", M Le Garroy, note inserted in PPT syllabus, second year, CSC (1996); "Bien-être", booklet, CSC (1998).