NoC 176/16 Official Journal of the European Communities 4. 7. 83 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council resolution on a second programme of action of the 
European Communities on safety and health at work 
The text referred to the Committee has been published in Official Journal of the Euro­
pean Communities No C 308 of 25 November 1982, page 11. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 4 November 1982 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the 
Economic and Social Committee in accordance with Articles 117, 118 and 198 of the 
Treaty establishing the European Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 
207th plenary session held in Brussels on 27 and 28 April 1983. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro­
pean Economic Community, and in particular Arti­
cles 117, 118 and 198 thereof, 
Having regard to the request made by the Council 
of the European Communities on 4 November 1982 
for an opinion on the proposal for a Council resolu­
tion on a second programme of action of the Euro­
pean Communities on safety and health at work, 
Having regard to the decision taken by the Com­
mittee Bureau on 24 November 1982 instructing the 
Section for Social Questions to draw up an opinion 
and a report on the matter, 
Having regard to the report submitted by the rappor­
teur, Mr Vercellino, 
Having regard to the opinion adopted by the Sec­
tion for Social Questions at its 161st meeting held 
on 14 April 1983, 
Having regard to the discussions on 28 April 1983 at 
its 207th plenary session, held on 27 and 28 April 
1983, Whereas, despite the considerable progress made on 
some points, the action plan under the first pro­
gramme was patchy, too general and too slow, 
although the problems to be tackled were extremely 
pressing; 
Whereas to carry out the actions of the second pro­
gramme more quickly and efficiently, a tighter work 
schedule is needed, with more clearly defined prior­
ity areas and an assessment of their costs and 
benefits; 
Whereas a real improvement in health and safety at 
work, using the potential afforded by modern sci­
ence and medicine, will considerably reduce the 
adverse effects on workers and companies, with a 
corresponding fall in production costs and social 
costs; 
Whereas more active, balanced participation of 
management, labour and public authorities will help 
improve and coordinate more effective and sensible 
rules and measures on worker health and safety in 
the general interest of industry and society; 
Whereas more widespread debate at Community 
level and a large-scale campaign to inform the gene­
ral public can provide back-up for these measures; 
4. 7. 83 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 176/17 
Whereas in this key area of economic and social 
activity, as in other major sectors of Community 
activity, a quick, efficient Community monitoring 
mechanism is urgently needed to help implement 
the Directives on health and safety at work, 
HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION 
with no dissenting votes, but with four abstentions: 
0. Foreword 
0.1. The second programme on safety and health 
at work will affect tens of millions of Community 
citizens. The programme espouses the same general 
aims as the Commission proposals and Council 
Decisions for the first programme (1978). 
The Committee is pleased that the basic soundness 
of these aims, now spread over 20 actions, has been 
endorsed. It feels that the second programme should 
signal a powerful upsurge in Commission and 
Council commitment in this important area of Com­
munity social policy. 
0.2. The major problems which emerged during the 
four years of the first programme, the long delays, 
and the small (though significant) number of Direc­
tives and actions actually completed, make it all the 
more vital that the Community and the individual 
Member States redouble their efforts to implement 
the second programme in the six years allocated to 
it. 
0.3. The setbacks cannot and must not justify 
delays in taking action to protect worker health and 
safety. Every effort must be made to overcome them 
as soon as possible. This requires proper use of the 
financial, technical and human resources available, 
expansion of these resources, and the selection of 
priority actions and goals. 1. General comments 
1.1. The rapid pace of technological innovation 
and changes in work organization bring with them 
the need for a greater Community commitment to 
health and safety at work. This should draw widely 
on scientific and technological progress so as to 
reduce occupational hazards by prior pinpointing of 
possible sources of injury. 
1.2. The Committee feels that the second pro­
gramme will run more smoothly with the active par­
ticipation, greater acceptance of responsibility, and 
collaboration between political bodies, employers 
and workers, on the basis of their mutual interest in 
industrial advance and their desire for general social 
and environmental progress. Thus, at Community 
level too, the Commission must coordinate the vari­
ous actions and their aims, by closer contact with 
industrialists and trade unionists. 
1.3. To ensure balanced collaboration, a proper 
costs/benefits assessment must be made of priority 
preventive measures. This will allow a more accu­
rate definition of practical details and timing of 
measures on technical processes, machinery and 
plant. This is the only way to strike a universally 
acceptable balance between the costs of health pro­
tection, technical modernization, and increased 
productivity. 
1.4. Past experience proves that to identify and 
eliminate hazards, we must consider the main compo­
nents of 'work': the human factor, machinery, 
instrument, environment and work organization. 
The study of these factors will help to mould an 
interdisciplinary approach involving doctors, engi­
neers, psychologists and other specialists. 
1.5. In line with this approach, some of the actions 
proposed in the new programme relate to a topic 
which deserves much greater attention than it has 
received in the past. This is industrial medicine 
(including its psychological and ergonomic aspects), 
or the interaction between individual, environment 
and machine. Other actions focus on work 
organization. 
NoC 176/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 4. 7. 83 
In this connection, the Committee feels it worth­
while to stress the topicality and the relevance of the 
view expressed in the 1978 Committee opinion (OJ 
No C 283, 27. 11. 1978): 'official type-approval or 
some other testing procedure for especially danger­
ous equipment and machinery is of central import­
ance in ensuring safety. This type-approval must be 
based on constantly updated information provided 
by ergonomics — information which is anyway vital 
in its own right for safety and accident prevention.' 
1.6. The relevant facts and figures are a prerequis­
ite for a health and safety strategy. These can be 
obtained in two ways. Firstly, by determining the 
statistical frequency (f) and seriousness (s) of injury 
and disease, and thus the risk (r = sf); secondly by 
testing and evaluating technological processes and 
equipment in order to identify hazards. This high­
lights the importance of compiling comparable sta­
tistics on industrial accidents and diseases, and of 
evaluating research into the safety of plant and 
equipment. 
1.7. Member States' legislations on worker health 
and safety protection differ widely. There are also 
differences between the public bodies monitoring 
enforcement of national and Community rules. 
There are further discrepancies in the criteria for 
reporting occupational diseases and accidents, and 
for assessing the number of workers employed per 
production sector. 
All this slows down the implementation of the pro­
gramme as a whole and of the individual Directives 
which have been approved to date and incorporated 
in national legislation. 
1.8. The Committee feels that national peculiari­
ties may lead to considerable discrepancies in the 
enforcement of Community Directives. Concern 
about these discrepancies may slow down the indi­
vidual States' adoption and implementation of 
Directives. A Community monitoring mechanism 
(or EEC work inspectorate) is therefore needed to 
ensure that these Directives have a uniform impact 
in the different countries. This should not be unne­cessarily cumbersome, but limited to the bare essen­
tials needed to carry out a few clearly defined duties 
relating to the general aims and interests outlined 
above. It could also advance harmonization of 
Member States' existing legislation and monitoring 
bodies. 
1.9. If the new programme is to bring rapid results, 
the Committee feels that the financial and human 
resources which the Community devotes to it will 
have to be stepped up. The Committee also stresses 
the importance of stepping up coordination between 
the Commission services dealing with the environ­
ment, for the purpose of exploiting the experience 
and findings already obtained and avoiding point­
less delays. 
1.10. The Programme must in any case be backed 
by a financial statement confirming the Council's 
commitment to it, and by a Commission work 
schedule, specifying the various goals and deadlines 
for individual measures over the six years of its life. 
1.11. As stated above, the implementation of many 
of the actions, and of the progamme as a whole, 
requires constructive collaboration between indus­
trialists, workers and public authorities. This can be 
facilitated by the setting-up at Community level of 
joint or tripartite committees in at least a few of 
those sectors where the hazards are greatest, 
designed to follow and help monitor the progress of 
the various actions. 
1.12. A joint effort to raise safety levels in facto­
ries, in small firms, on the land, and in employment 
in general, means that workers and industrialists 
must be given more information, for example on all 
those features of machinery, products (including fer­
tilizers and pesticides) and plant which have a bear­
ing on safety and health. Preventive departments in 
firms should be expanded, starting with those 
already extant, such as health and safety commit­
tees, and industrial medicine services. This would be 
a great help towards improving information, and 
towards accident prevention itself. 
4. 7. 83 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 176/19 
1.13. On a more general level, in this OECD infor­
mation year, the Committee suggests the promotion 
of a large-scale Community-wide campaign to brief 
the workers concerned, and the general public, 
about the problems of worker safety, and more espe­
cially about the campaign against occupational acci­
dents and diseases. The Committee feels it could 
help here, by mounting a debate on industrial medi­
cine in the Community, and how to improve it. 
1.14. The 20 actions proposed in the second pro­
gramme are divided into seven sections. The first 
covers the special hazards of chemical substances or 
physical agents which can cause immediate or 
long-term injury and damage to people, property 
and the environment. The second section concerns 
ordinary hazards common to all industries (falls, 
electric shocks, contact with moving parts of machi­
nery). Such accidents are frequent. The second sec­
tion also refers to Directive 82/501/EEC on major 
accident hazards, i.e. those involving explosions and 
rapid escape of clouds of toxic or flammable sub­
stances in large areas of a plant or the environment. 
Such accidents are rare, but when they occur they 
cause major damage. The subject of major accident 
hazards, which was adequately dealt with in Direc­
tive 82/501/EEC does not seem relevant to the 
actions proposed in the current programme. It 
should not therefore be dealt with here. 
1.15. Without wishing to draw up a 'league table' 
of the 20 proposed actions, there are three groups of 
actions whose implementation could significantly 
speed up the entire programme. These are (1) the 
actions in Section I (1 to 6) concerning special 
hazards, which are already covered by Directive 
80/1107/EEC of 27 November 1980, and a few spe­
cific Directives, (2) the actions in Section IV (13 to 
15) concerning worker training and information, 
and (3) the actions on harmonization of Member 
States' public monitoring methods (action 10) and 
legislation on accident prevention (action 7). 
1.16. The Committee feels that the programme 
should make specific provision for updating the 
1966 recommendation on occupational diseases, 
and the list appended to it. There is no good reason 
why certain occupational diseases are recognized in 
some Member States and not in others. 2. Specific comments 
I. PROTECTION AGAINST DANGEROUS 
SUBSTANCES 
2.1. Action 1 
The specific Directives provided for in outline Direc­
tive 80/1107/EEC should indicate what informa­
tion channels will be used to facilitate 'access by 
workers and/or their representatives at the place of 
work to appropriate information to improve their 
knowledge of the dangers to which they are 
exposed' (Article 5 (5) of the Directive). 
2.2. Action 2 
It will take quite a long time to work out a general 
'methodology' for assessing health risks from new 
dangerous substances and from the cumulative 
effect of several substances (synergism). This action 
should be incorporated in the international pro­
grammes currently underway, more particularly in 
OECD's 'risk assessment' studies on environmental 
pollutants. Assessment methods should then be 
directed towards hazards in the work environment. 
Initial action should be concentrated on defining 
methods for those substances whose toxicological 
data are known and which have been the subject of 
epidemiological investigation. 
2.3. Action 3 
The Committee fully endorses the main aim of lay­
ing down standard limits for the Member States. To 
convert the environmental data obtainable by ana­
lysis into exposure data, it is necessary to specify 
(a) the sampling method and measurement tech­
nique for the work environment, (b) the method of 
weighting data to allow for free time, and (c) the 
method of determining the duration of exposure. 
NoC 176/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 4. 7. 83 
2.4. Action 4 
This action can only partially curtail individual 
exposure, as limitation depends mainly on the 
organization of work and manufacturing procedures 
which are usually negotiated or directly agreed 
between employers' and workers' organizations. 
2.5. Action 5 
2.5.1. In dealing with carcinogens, reference may 
be made to the parent Directive and the specific 
Directive on asbestos. Exposure of workers to recog­
nized carcinogens or to other highly toxic sub­
stances must be avoided by both (a) technical mea­
sures and (b) rules on handling and specifications 
for plant designs and equipment to prevent or mini­
mize emissions of these substances; if necessary, 
the substance should be banned. 
2.5.2. This implies a special procedure for notifying 
the competent authorities of the proposed activity, 
and supplying information which can be used to 
assess the safety of the installation by means of 
safety studies based on the projects. 
2.5.3. The Committee calls for the setting-up of (a) 
a databank on occupational cancers in the various 
production sectors, including farming, and (b) a 
Community programme to stamp out occupational 
cancer. Little is known about the harmful effects of 
around 50 000 chemicals listed for the implementa­
tion of the sixth amendment Directive on the classi­
fication, packaging and labelling of dangerous 
substances ('). Community action is therefore 
needed. This could start with the compilation of an 
EEC list of the main chemicals, based on the pre­
sumed level of harmfulness and the number of work­
ers involved. Studies should be carried out on the 
harmful effects of these chemicals, preventive act­
ion, rules, and user training and information. 
(') OJ No L 259, 15. 10. 1979. 2.6. Action 6 
The action could also embrace non-ionizing radia­
tion such as micro-waves and lasers. 
II. PROTECTION AGAINST ACCIDENTS AND 
DANGEROUS OCCURRENCES 
2.7. Action 7 
2.7.1. This action, which is one of the more impor­
tant, must aim to harmonize Member States' legisla­
tion on accident prevention and to improve the 
rules governing high-risk occupational groups. 
2.7.2. The following wording is proposed: 'Begin 
harmonization of Member States' legislation on 
accident prevention, and draw up proposals on safe­
ty legislation to ensure more effective protection 
throughout the Community for those occupational 
groups who are most at risk.' 
To implement Actions 7, 8 and 9, a framework 
Directive could be drawn up on machinery and 
instrument safety, in both design and use. This 
should be accompanied by specific Directives. 
2.8. Action 8 
The wording and aims would be clearer if the refer­
ence to Directive 82/501/EEC were omitted. 
2.9. Action 9 
2.9.1. The aim of this action is to protect the indi­
vidual from the effects of machinery and the work 
environment in general. This action must cover 
ergonomic principles both (a) at the design stage, 
and (b) in the correction of production procedures 
and modification of machinery. 
2.9.2. The following wording is proposed: 'Pro­
pose harmonized official type-approval and moni­
toring procedures for the Member States for espe­
cially dangerous machinery and equipment in order 
4. 7. 83 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 176/21 
to ensure safety and guarantee ergonomic princi­
ples. Thus ensure that the health and safety of spe­
cific groups of workers is not jeopardized by the 
stress imposed by equipment design, by the tasks 
performed and by the work environment.' 
2.10. Action 10 
It would be better to include this item under sec­
tion III. As the action says, safety inspectors should 
have a standard background and training. However, 
national monitoring procedures should also gradu­
ally be harmonized. 
III. ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS — 
MONITORING 
2.11. Action 11 
To make the best and widest possible use of indus­
trial medicine and related measures, it could use­
fully be specified that the public authorities respon­
sible for industrial health and safety should help 
smaller firms to reach the requisite safety standards 
where the technical staff of the company are unable 
to do so. 
2.12. Action 12 
Those responsible for plant should ensure that it is 
safe, and decide the safest work procedures for 
maintenance and repair workers, and subcontractors 
(or at least, workers from outside the firm), so as to 
reduce the special hazards of which these categories 
are often unaware. 
IV. TRAINING AND INFORMATION 
2.13. Action 13 
The Directive on safety signs at places of work (') 
should be promptly enforced. 
2.14. Action 14 
To ensure that workers are fully briefed and can 
play a greater part in solving safety problems, some 
(') OJ No L 229, 7. 9. 1977. countries feel it necessary (a) to provide a register of 
environmental data for workers who are exposed to 
chemicals or physical and biological agents, and (b) 
to draw up a safety data sheet for the plant pin­
pointing the types of hazard present (special, ordi­
nary, major hazards). 
2.15. Action 15 
Training on safety and accident prevention should 
be an integral part of vocational training. The EEC 
and its individual Member States can help here by 
expanding and maximizing the effectiveness of the 
special courses and measures financed by the Euro­
pean Social Fund. Priority consideration should be 
given to training for workers, young people and 
most of all, migrant workers, to make rules on pre­
vention and safety clearer to them. Those in their 
first job also need better information and specific 
training. 
V. STATISTICS 
2.16. Action 16 
Compilation of Community statistics on occupa­
tional mortality rates and diseases is already under­
way. It should quickly be stepped up inter alia in 
order to eliminate national restrictions on the neces­
sary information, in three stages: (1) publication by 
the Statistical Office of 'untreated' statistics (not yet 
comparable) broken down by country and sector; 
(2) standardized Community procedures for report­
ing occupational diseases and accidents; (3) draw­
ing up of comparable statistics. 
2.17. Action 17 
This is an essential job which epidemiologists are 
capable of tackling, if suitable conditions are first 
created for the proper use of medical data. 
VI. RESEARCH 
2.18. Action 18 
In addition to a joint research programme, thought 
should be given to the most effective ways of develo-
NoC 176/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 4. 7. 83 
ping research, involving the interested parties, and 
ensuring that findings are put to good use. Existing 
Community bodies, notably the Ispra Centre, could 
be used more efficiently. 
VII. COLLABORATION 
2.19. Action 19 
To coordinate the research carried out in the various 
Done at Brussels, 28 April 1983. 
The full text of the opinion is as follows: 
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the 
European Economic Community, and in particular 
Articles 99, 100 and 198 thereof. specialist institutes, each body must evince a level 
of scientific competence which transcends its spe­
cific interests. 
2.20. Action 20 
Point 2.19. is also applicable here. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Francois CEYRAC 
Having regard to the Council's request of 30 July 
1982 for an opinion on the proposal for a 13th 
Council Directive on the harmonization of the laws 
of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — 
Arrangements for the refund of value added tax to 
taxable persons not established in Community terri­
tory ('), 
(') OJNoC223, 27. 8. 1982, p. 5. Opinion on the proposal for a 13th Council Directive on the harmonization of the laws of 
the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Arrangements for the refund of value 
added tax to taxable persons not established in Community territory 
The text referred to the Committee has been published in Official Journal of the Euro­
pean Communities No C 223 of 27 August 1982, page 5. 
A. LEGAL BASIS FOR THE OPINION 
On 30 July 1982 the Council referred the abovementioned proposal to the Economic 
and Social Committee in accordance with Articles 99, 100 and 198 of the Treaty estab­
lishing the European Economic Community. 
B. OPINION OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 
The Economic and Social Committee prepared its opinion on the above matter at its 
207th plenary session held in Brussels on 27 and 28 April 1983.