WRITTEN QUESTION E-2540/98

by Roberta Angelilli (NI) to the Commission

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Workplace ("luogo di lavoro")

Under Italian law, the protection of health and safety at work are governed by Legislative Decree No 626 of 19 September 1994 supplemented by Legislative Decree No 242 of 19 March 1996. In this context the prevention of accidents at the workplace ("luogo di lavoro") is particularly important. However, that expression can be used in a general sense to mean the place or premises where work is performed or in the specific sense of work station or production unit. An increasingly wide interpretation has been adopted in the case-law on accidents at work so that "workplace" ("luogo di lavoro") has come to mean any place where there are work stations ("posti di lavoro") and any other place within the undertaking or production unit to which there is access for work purposes or in the course of work. The sole exceptions from the scope of the legislation are means of transport, temporary or mobile construction sites, the mining industries, fishing boats, fields, woods and other land forming part of a forestry estate but located away from the estate buildings. Some cases are, however, not so easy to determine: for example, a tram, albeit a means of transport, is in every respect the workplace of the tram driver contrary to the restrictive literal interpretation of the rule.

1. Can the Commission indicate what is meant by "workplace" under the Community directives on the protection of health and safety at work?

2. If in the particular case of the driver the means of transport is not deemed to be his workplace, can the Commission indicate what his workplace is deemed to be?

Answer given by Mr Flynn on behalf of the Commission

(7 October 1998)

1. According to Article 2 of Council Directive 89/654/EEC of 30 November 1989 concerning the minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace (first individual directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC)(1), for the purposes of the application of this Directive "& lsquo;workplace& rsquo; means the place intended to house workstations on the premises of the undertaking and/or establishment and any other place within the area of the undertaking and/or establishment to which the worker has access in the course of his employment".

The sectors excluded from the scope of this Directive by Article 1(2) thereof are covered by specific directives, with the exception of means of transport, concerning which the Council has yet to adopt a position on the proposal for a Directive forwarded by the Commission(2), and fields, woods and other land forming part of an agricultural or forestry undertaking.

2. The means of transport constitutes the workplace of its driver or pilot. However, this workplace is not covered by Directive 89/654/EEC because it is excluded by Article 1(2). Nevertheless, it is covered by the other relevant directives on health and safety at work, notably Framework 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(3).

(1) OJ L 393, 30.12.1989.

(2) COM(92) 234 final of 16.11.1992 and COM(93) 421 final of 1.10.1993 (amended proposal).

(3) OJ L 183, 29.6.1989.