Commission to adopt new occupational health and safety strategy

The European Commission will soon unveil its proposals for a future health and safety regime appropriate to an enlarged Europe. Within the debate on the future direction of occupational health and safety, Europe’s trade unions are calling for a new strategy that is firmly supported by legislation. Employers, however, are arguing for a move away from the belief that legislation is the only valid means of dealing with occupational health and safety. Conditions at work are heavily dependent on the existence of well-structured health and safety practices. Major occupational health and safety challenges remain, including musculoskeletal disorders and the health and safety risks associated with working with chemicals.

Working conditions and health

A new report from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI-REHS), New scope for the Community health and safety at work strategy 2007–2012, represents the trade union contribution at EU level to the debate on the European Commission’s strategy on workplace health and safety over the next five years. The trade unions are concerned that the strategy could represent a move away from legal regulation towards ‘soft’ law options. The report suggests that the Commission’s proposals for ‘legislative simplification’ or ‘better regulation’ could undermine the existing regulatory framework of workers’ health and safety protection.

The existing framework has traditionally been based on the promotion of ‘hard’ law measures, such as Directive 2003/88/EC on certain aspects of the organisation of working time and Directive 89/391/EEC on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the health and safety of workers at their workplace.

Union concerns have been fuelled by a perception of what happened after the adoption of the previous Community strategy for 2002–2006, which is described in the report as the creation of an ‘unholy alliance’ aimed at killing off ‘any ambitious new legislation on social/employment rights’. Instead, the report promotes a different partnership, of trade unions with ‘environmental groups, public health lobbies and, more generally, everyone who believes that human beings, nature and the world are not just to be bought and sold’.

From the employers’ perspective, however, there is active support for a revision of current directives and for the adoption of more ‘soft’ law measures. The Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE) has produced a paper, Priorities for the future Community Strategy on Health and Safety (53Kb PDF), in which it argues – contrary to the ETUI report – that there is ‘an overall need to ensure a better balance’ between legislation and other measures. Moreover, the paper suggests that there ‘should be a move away from the belief that legislation is the only valid means of dealing with occupational health and safety’. UNICE states that ‘it is crucial to give priority to better implementation of the existing EU law rather than focusing on new legislation’.

The positions taken by these two key actors have each been informed by a need to respond to the new situation presented through EU enlargement; trade unions are concerned that existing work standards might be undermined, while employers fear that the principles of free movement might be compromised if legal measures predominate. While health and safety is not the sole focus of these concerns – as wider issues related to working conditions are also affected by enlargement – health and safety has been identified as an area where a shift from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ law could have consequences for a regulatory regime that has so far shaped working relationships.

Key health and safety issues

The Annual review of working conditions in the EU: 2005–2006 by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition notes that musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) remain the most predominant work-related health problem for Europe’s workers today. According also to the ETUI report, as many as one in three workers are currently affected by MSD. This recognition of the major health challenges posed by MSD has consequently led to its adoption by trade unions as a key issue. The ETUI report argues that MSD is related to pressurised work organisation and calls for a new directive focusing specifically on MSD.

The ETUI campaign for such a new directive also promotes the need for more regulation on the safe use of chemicals. Unions want mutagens and reprotoxins to be brought within the scope of the carcinogens Directive 2004/37/EC. This issue is also addressed in the Foundation’s annual review.

Sonia McKay, AWWW GmbH ArbeitsWelt-Working World