WRITTEN QUESTION E-1201/01

by Christoph Konrad (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 April 2001)

Subject: Harmonisation of minimum standards for personal protective equipment

1. Are employers obliged, following the publication of Council Directive 89/686/EEC(1) in the Official Journal and the listing of sources in the equipment safety law, to make personal protective equipment meeting these minimum standards available to their employees? Is there an indirect obligation for the latter to wear this equipment for reasons of liability?

2. Following the publication of these standards, are employers still free to determine on their own authority what kind of work and protective clothing employees should wear?

3. Is the labour protection law affected by the minimum standards?

4. The regulation on workplaces excludes road vehicles in public transport from the scope of its provisions. Could the minimum standards for personal protective equipment likewise be excluded?

(1) OJ L 399, 30.12.1989, p. 18.

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(18 June 2001)

Article 4 (1) of Council Directive 89/656/EEC of 30 November 1989 on the minimum health and safety requirements for the use by workers of personal protective equipment at the workplace(1) provides that personal protective equipment must comply with the relevant Community provisions on design and manufacture with respect to safety and health, i.e. with Directive 89/686/EEC as amended on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to personal protective equipment(2).

Article 4 of Directive 89/656/EEC also sets out the conditions of use of personal protective equipment. In particular, paragraph 6 stipulates that it must be supplied free of charge by the employer but leaves it up to Member States whether to provide that the worker be asked to contribute towards the cost of certain personal protective equipment in circumstances where use of the equipment is not exclusive to the workplace.

In accordance with Article 13 of 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), it shall be the responsibility of each worker to take care as far as possible of his own safety and health and that of other persons affected by his acts or omissions at work in accordance with his training and the instructions given by his employer.

To this end, workers must, for example, make correct use of the personal protective equipment supplied to them.

In the new approach directives, which include Directive 89/686/EEC, the application of European standards is voluntary.

The directives based on Article 137 (ex Article 118A) of the EC Treaty contain minimum requirements which must be transposed into national law in the Member States.

No. The only exclusions from the scope of Directive 89/656/EEC are those given in Article 2(2). These include personal protective equipment for means of road transport.

(1) OJ L 393, 30.12.1989.

(2) Council Directive 89/686/EEC of 21 December 1989 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to personal protective equipment (OJ L 399, 30.12.1989) as amended by Council Directive 93/68/EEC of 22 July 1993 (OJ L 220, 30.8.1993), Council Directive 93/95/EEC of 29 October 1993 (OJ L 276, 9.11.1993) and Directive 96/58/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 3 September 1996 (OJ L 236, 18.9.1996).

(3) OJ L 183, 29.6.1989.