COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 341/2006
of 24 February 2006
adopting the specifications of the 2007 ad hoc module on accidents at work and work-related health problems provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 and amending Regulation (EC) No 384/2005
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 of 9 March 1998 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community (1), and in particular Article 4(2) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Commission Regulation (EC) No 384/2005 of 7 March 2005 adopting the programme of ad hoc modules, covering the years 2007 to 2009, to the labour force sample survey provided by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 (2) includes an ad hoc module on accidents at work and work-related health problems.
(2)
Council Resolution No 2002/C 161/01 of 3 June 2002 on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2002-2006) (3) called on the Commission and the Member States to step up work in hand on harmonisation of statistics on accidents at work and occupational illnesses, so as to have available comparable data from which to make an objective assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the measures taken under the new Community strategy.
(3)
Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work (4), states that employers must keep a list of occupational accidents resulting in a worker being unfit for work for more than three working days and must draw up, for the responsible authorities and in accordance with national laws and/or practices, reports on occupational accidents suffered by his workers. In its Recommendation 2003/670/EC of 19 September 2003 concerning the European schedule of occupational diseases (5), the Commission recommended that Member States should ensure that all cases of occupational diseases are reported and should progressively make their statistics on occupational diseases compatible with the European schedule, in accordance with the work being done on the system of harmonising European statistics on occupational diseases. The Commission Communication of 11 March 2002 on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006 (6) underlines that the statistical information should cover not just recognised occupational accidents and illnesses, their causes and consequences, but should also introduce some quantifiable elements relating to working environment factors which are likely to cause the problems. Statistical data should also be available for emerging phenomena, like stress-related complaints or musculoskeletal problems.
(4)
It is also necessary to update the specification of the sample set out in Section 1 of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 384/2005, in order to ensure that the sample available for analysis in the ad hoc module is as revealing as possible.
(5)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
The detailed list of information to be collected in 2007 by the ad hoc module on accidents at work and work-related health problems, required for Section 1 of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 384/2005, shall be as set out in the Annex to this Regulation.
Article 2
In Section 1 of the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 384/2005, the point ‘Sample’ is replaced by the following:
‘Sample: The target age group for the sample for this module consists of persons aged 15 or more.’
Article 3
This Regulation shall enter into force on the seventh day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 24 February 2006.