CELEX: 51990PC0228(03)
Language: en
Date: 1990-08-13
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE SUPPLEMENTING THE MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK OF TEMPORARY WORKERS

No C 224/8                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  8. 9. 90
             Proposal for a Council Directive supplementing the measures to encourage improvements in the
                                    safety and health at work of temporary workers
                                             COM(90) 228 final — SYN 281
                                    (Submitted by the Commission on 29 June 1990)
                                                      (90/C 224/06)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES",                      general; whereas further provisions are necessary to
                                                               cover the specific situation of temporary workers;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 118a             Whereas certain work requires special medical super-
thereof,                                                       vision over a long period; whereas it should therefore be
                                                               prohibited for temporary workers, save in exceptional
                                                               circumstances, the workers concerned being afforded in
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,             that case medical supervision beyond the term of their
                                                               contracts;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,
                                                               Whereas, in order to ensure a better level of protection,
                                                               information and training must enable the temporary
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and               workers (and also the workers' representatives within the
Social Committee,                                              undertaking) to know and appreciate the risks for health
                                                               and safety to which they are exposed at work and the
                                                               measures required to reduce or eliminate those risks;
Whereas Article 118a of the EEC Treaty provides that
the Council shall adopt, by means of Directives,
minimum requirements for encouraging improvements,             Whereas, whatever the temporary worker's employment
especially in the working environment, to guarantee a          relationship, it is the employer making use of his services
better level of protection of the safety and health of         who must be responsible for applying the rules on safety
workers;                                                       and health;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 118a of the Treaty, such          Whereas this Directive constitutes a practical step within
Directives must avoid imposing administrative, financial       the framework of the attainment of the social dimension
and legal constraints which would hold back the creation       of the internal market,
and development of small and medium-sized under-
takings;
                                                               HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Whereas recourse to forms of employment such as
temporary employment has increased considerably;
                                                                                          Article 1
Whereas special attention should be paid to ensure that        This    Directive      concerns    temporary    employment
such employees receive appropriate training as regards         relationships in the form of:
the occupational risks peculiar to the undertaking
concerned;
                                                               (a) employment governed        by a fixed-duration contract
                                                                   — including seasonal       work — concluded directly
Whereas research results show that in general temporary            between the employer      and the employee, where the
workers are more exposed to the risk of accidents at                end of the contract        is established by objective
work and occupational diseases than other workers;                 conditions such as:         reaching a specific date,
                                                                   completing a specific     task or the occurrence of a
                                                                   specific event;
Whereas the Directives on health and safety, notably
Council Directive 89/391 /EEC ('), contain provisions
intended to improve the health and safety of workers in
                                                               (b) temporary employment covering any relationship
                                                                 , between the temporary employment business which
O OJ No L 183, 29. 6. 1989, p. 1.                                  is the employer and its employee, where the latter
 ---pagebreak--- 8. 9. 90                             Official Journal of the European Communities                           No C 224/9
     has no contract with the undertaking where he             For the application of the preceding paragraph, the
     performs his activities.                                  conditions governing the performance of the work shall
                                                               be limited to those connected with safety, health and
                                                               hygiene at work.
                           Article 2
The purpose of this Directive is to ensure that, for the                                Article 5
duration of the work performed in an undertaking               Member States shall ensure that, before a temporary
and/or establishment making use of the services of the         worker takes up any activity requiring special occupa-
temporary worker, such worker is afforded, as regards          tional qualifications or skills or special medical super-
health and safety at work, the same conditions as those        vision, he is informed by the employer making use of his
of other workers in that undertaking and/or estab-             services of the risks he faces and, if necessary, receives
lishment, account being taken of particular situations.        appropriate training.
Directive 89/391/EEC and the individual Directives                                      Article 6
within the meaning of Article 16 (1) thereof shall apply
in full to the entire field referred to in the preceding       Member States shall ensure that temporary workers are
paragraph, without prejudice to more binding and/or            not used for work requiring special medical supervision
more specific provisions set out in this Directive.            over a long period. However, in certain exceptional cases
                                                               requiring medical supervision over a long period,
                                                               temporary workers may be used but in such a case the
                           Article 3                           Member States shall ensure that the latter are afforded
Member States shall ensure that the assignment contract        medical supervision beyond the term of their contract.
linking the user to the temporary employment business
                                                                                        Article 7
specifies the occupational qualification required, the
place of work, the hours of work, the specific features of      1.    Member States shall bring into force the laws,
the job to be filled and, in particular, whether the job       regulations and administrative provisions necessary to
falls within the category of major risks as defined in         comply with this Directive by 31 December 1992 at the
national legislation.                                          latest. They shall forthwith inform the Commission
                                                               thereof.
All these facts shall be brought to the knowledge of the
                                                               The provisions adopted pursuant to the preceding
workers concerned.
                                                               subparagraph shall make express reference to this
                                                               Directive.
                           Article 4                           2.     Member States shall forward to the Commission
                                                               the texts of the provisions of national law which they
Member States shall ensure, without prejudice to the
                                                               have already adopted or adopt in the field covered by
liability of the temporary employment business, that the
                                                               this Directive.
undertaking and/or establishment making use of the
services of a temporary worker is responsible for the
                                                                                        Article 8
duration of the assignment for the conditions governing
performance of the work which are applicable thereto.          This Directive is addressed to the Member States.