CELEX: 51988PC0073
Language: en
Date: 1988-03-07
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE INTRODUCTION OF MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SAFETY AND HEALTH OF WORKERS AT THE WORKPLACE

30. 5. 88                                  Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 141/1
                                                                   II
                                                          (Preparatory Acts)
                                                     COMMISSION
                 Proposal for a Council Directive on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements
                                       in the safety and health of workers at the workplace
                                                           COM(88) 73 final
                                (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 11 March 1988)
                                                             (88/C 141/01)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                              Whereas Member States have a responsibility to ensure the
                                                                      safety and health of persons on their territory, and of
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                 workers in particular;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 118A
thereof,                                                              Whereas Member States' legislative systems differ widely
                                                                      with regard to the prevention of work accidents and
Having regard to the Commission proposal drawn up after               occupational diseases;
consultation with the Advisory Committee on Safety,
Hygiene and Health Protection at Work ( ! ),                          Whereas the incidence of accidents at work is still
                                                                      regrettably high, and preventive measures must be
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social               introduced or improved in order to guarantee the safety
Committee,                                                            and health of workers;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                          Whereas, in order to achieve the maximum degree of
                                                                      protection which is reasonably practicable, it is essential
                                                                      that workers and their representatives be informed of the
Whereas Article 118A of the Treaty provides that the                  risks to their safety and health and of the measures required
Council shall adopt, by means of Directives, minimum                  to reduce or eliminate these risks, and be allowed to verify
requirements for encouraging improvements as regards the              that the necessary protective measures have indeed been
health and safety of workers, especially in the working               taken;
environment;
                                                                      Whereas cooperation between employers and workers and
Whereas Article 118A also recommends that Directives                  workers' representatives must be strengthened;
shall avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal
constraints which would hold back the creation and
development of small and medium-sized undertakings;                   Whereas it is recognized as essential to take safety and
                                                                      health considerations into account from the earliest stages
                                                                      of workplace design;
Whereas the Communication from the Commission on its
programme concerning safety, hygiene and health at
work (2) provides for the adoption of Directives designed to          Whereas employers must keep abreast of technological
guarantee the safety and health of workers;                           progress in order to provide optimum safety and health
                                                                      protection for their workers;
Whereas the Council Resolution of 21 December 1987 on
safety, hygiene and health at work took note of the                   Whereas this Directive constitutes an overall social
Commission's intention to submit to the Council in the                complement to various technical harmonization Directives
near future a Directive on the organization of the safety and         designed to complete the internal market; whereas it
health of workers at the workplace;                                   supplements the provisions of Directive 80/1107/EEC of 27
                                                                      November 1980;
(!) Council Decision 74/325/EEC (OJ No L I 85, 9. 7. 1974, p. 15).    Whereas it is planned, as of now, to establish specific
(2) Doc. COM(87) 520 final and Council Resolution 88/C 28/01          provisions containing measures liable to improve safety
    ( O J N o C 28, 3.2. 1988).                                       and health at work;
 ---pagebreak--- No C 141/2                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                    30. 5. 88
Whereas a Committee composed of members nominated                                   Responsibility of the employer
by the Member States needs to be set up to assist the
Commission in implementing the supplementary measures
provided for by the Directive,                                                                 Article 4
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                         1. The employer shall be responsible for the safety and
                                                                    health of the workers in every aspect which is directly or
                            Object                                  indirectly related to the work in the undertaking and/or
                                                                    establishment.
                           Article 1                                2. Where an employer calls in a specialist safety and
                                                                    health service or an outside consultant for organization of
The object of this Directive is the introduction of measures        protective measures, this shall not discharge him from his
to encourage improvements in the safety and health of               responsibilities in this area.
workers at the workplace. The Directive contains general
principles concerning in particular the prevention of               3. The obligations of the workers in these fields shall not
occupational risks, the protection of safety and health and         affect the principle of the employers's responsibility.
the informing, consultation and training of workers and
their representatives, as well as general principles concern-                         Obligations of the employer
ing the implementation of such measures.
                          Definitions                                                          Article 5
                                                                    1. Within the context of his responsibilities, the employer
                           Article 2
                                                                    shall take the necessary measures for the protection of the
                                                                    safety and health of workers, including prevention of
For the purposes of this Directive, the following terms have        occupational risks and provision of information and
the meaning hereby assigned to them:                                training, as well as provision of the necessary organization
                                                                    and resources. The employer shall be constantly alert to the
— workplace :
                                                                    need to adjust these measures and improve existing
any place to which the worker has access in the undertaking         situations.
and/or establishment,
                                                                    2. The employer shall put the following general prevent-
— worker:                                                           ive principles into practice, adapting them to match the
                                                                    specific conditions applying to his undertaking, including
any person who performs work in some form, including                the size of the undertaking:
students undergoing training and apprentices,
                                                                    — combating the risks at source,
— undertaking and/or        establishment:
                                                                    — adapting the work to the man,
a public-sector or private-sector entity engaging in
particular in industrial, agricultural, commercial, adminis-        — adapting to technical progress,
trative, educational, cultural or service activities,
                                                                    — replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the
— employer:                                                              less dangerous,
the body or person in charge of the undertaking and/or              — developing a coherent overall prevention policy based
establishment,                                                           on technology, organization of work, working con-
                                                                         ditions and human relationships.
—     prevention:
all the provisions or measures taken or developed at each           3. The specific obligations on employers shall be as
stage of the activities performed within the undertaking            follows:
with a view to avoiding or reducing the occupational risks,
                                                                     (a) The employer shall evaluate the safety and health risks
— occupational     risk:                                                 to workers in the choice of work equipment, the
                                                                         chemical substances or preparations used, and the
any work-related situation liable to damage the physical or              design and fitting out of workplaces.
psychological safety and/or health of the worker, excluding
accidents on the way to and from work.                                   Subsequent to this evaluation, the preventive measures,
                                                                         working methods and production methods introduced
                                                                         by the employer must provide the maximum protection
                           Article 3                                     that is reasonably practicable to achieve in respect of the
                                                                         safety and health of the workers.
Member States shall ensure that employers, workers and
workers' representatives comply with those provisions of             (b) The safety and health measures taken by the employer
 this Directive which apply to them.                                     must be integrated into all the activities of the
 ---pagebreak--- 30. 5. 88                                Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 141/3
     undertaking and/or establishment and at all hierar-            4. In all cases, the workers designated from within the
     chical levels.                                                 undertaking and/or the outside agencies or individuals
                                                                    consulted must have the necessary training and be sufficient
 (c) The employer must ensure that adequate consideration           in number to deal with the organization of preventive
     is given to ergonomic principles, in particular as             measures, taking into account the size of the undertaking
     regards:                                                       and/or the hazards to which the workers are exposed and
                                                                    their distribution throughout the entire undertaking and/or
                                                                    establishment.
     — the design of workplaces,
     — the choice of plant and equipment,                           5. Member States shall define the size of undertakings in
                                                                    which the employer, provided he is competent, may himself
     — the choice of working methods and production                 take responsibility for the measures referred to in
         methods.                                                   paragraph 1.
 (d) The employer must take the necessary measures to
     permit workers to organize their work in accordance            6. Member States shall define the training needed and the
     with their capabilities where reasonably practicable.          number of persons needed to fulfil the conditions set out in
                                                                    paragraph 4 of this Article.
 (e) In planning and organizing the work, the employer shall
     ensure that monotonous work involving repetitive
     activities of brief duration and work where the
     workrate is governed by a machine or conveyor belt
     such that the worker is prevented from influencing his                                     Article 7
     workrate himself are avoided where reasonably practic-
     able.
(f) The planning and introduction of new technologies               1. The employer shall make the requisite arrangements
     shall be undertaken in close cooperation with the              for first-aid, fire-fighting and evacuation of workers and
     workers and/or their representatives, particularly in          other persons present, and shall arrange the necessary
     respect of the choice of equipment and the working             contacts with outside agencies, particularly as regards first-
     conditions, including those aspects connected with the         aid, emergency medical care, rescue work and fire-fighting.
     working environment and the physical and psycho-
     social well-being of the individual. Workers shall
     receive appropriate training.                                  2. For first-aid, fire-fighting and the evacuation of
                                                                    personnel, the employer shall designate the workers
(g) When several undertakings share a workplace, the                required to implement such measures.
     employers shall coordinate their measures for the
     prevention of occupational risks, and shall inform one
     another and their workers and/or workers' representat-         The number of such personnel, their training and the
     ives of these risks.                                           equipment available to them shall be commensurate with
                                                                    the size and/or specific hazards of the undertaking and/or
                                                                    establishment.
                      Preventive services
                                                                    3. The employer shall take precautionary measures to
                           Article 6                                allow the worker to protect himself by immediately leaving
                                                                   the workplace if a serious, imminent, unavoidable danger
                                                                    arises.
1. The employer shall designate from the supervisory
staff one or more workers to be responsible for the
organization of measures for the prevention of occup-              4. The employer shall as soon as possible give details of
ational risks in the undertaking and/or establishment.             these precautionary measures to all workers exposed, or
                                                                   likely to be exposed, to a risk of serious and imminent
2. If this is not feasible for lack of competent personnel in      danger.
the undertaking and/or establishment, the employer shall
enlist the services of competent outside agencies or
individuals.                                                       5. In the event of a serious and imminent danger to his
                                                                   own safety and/or that of other persons, each worker shall
3. Where the employer calls in competent outside                   be in a position to take the necessary measures to avoid the
agencies or individuals, he shall inform them of the factors       consequences of such a danger, on the basis of his own
known to affect, or suspected of affecting, the safety and         knowledge and the technical and hierarchical means at his
health of the workers.                                             disposal.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 141/4                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                    30. 5. 88
                    Information to be held                          (c) the information yielded by preventive measures,
                                                                        inspection agencies and bodies responsible for safety
                                                                        and health.
                            Article 8
                                                                                        Consultation of workers
1.     The employer shall:
                                                                                               Article 10
(a) be in possession of an analysis of existing risks to safety
     and health at the workplace;                                   1. Workers or their representatives with specific respons-
                                                                    ibility for safety and health shall be consulted in advance by
(b) decide on the protective measures to be taken and, if           the employer with regard to:
     necessary, the protective equipment to be used;
                                                                    — any measure which may substantially affect health and
(c) keep a list of accidents and occupational diseases which            safety,
     have resulted in a worker being unfit for work for more
     than three working days;                                       — the designation of persons referred to in Articles 6(2)
                                                                        and 7(2),
(d) draw up a report on accidents and occupational diseases
                                                                    — the information referred to in Articles 6(1) and 9;
     having resulted in, or liable to result in, partial
     permanent unfitness for work, indicating the causes and
                                                                    — the setting up of a specialist safety and/or health service
     the measures taken or to be taken.
                                                                        or, where appropriate, the enlistment of an outside
                                                                        preventive service as referred to in Article 6(2);
2. Member States shall establish the criteria for exempt-
ing undertakings from having to draw up the documents               — the planning and organization of the training referred to
required to fulfil the obligations described in paragraph 1             in Article 11.
(a) and (b).
                                                                    2. The consultation referred to in paragraph 1 may be
                    Information of workers                          restricted to the workers' representatives with specific
                                                                    responsibility for the protection of the safety and health of
                                                                    workers, on condition that there are enough of them.
                            Article 9                               3. Workers and workers' representatives with specific
                                                                    responsibility for the protection of the safety and health of
                                                                    workers shall not be placed at any disadvantage as a result
 1. In accordance with the practices adopted in the                 of such activities.
Member States, which may take account in particular of
the size of undertakings, the employer shall take ap-
                                                                    4. The employer shall ensure that workers' representat-
propriate measures to ensure that the workers and/or their
                                                                     ives with specific responsibility for the protection of the
representatives in the undertaking or establishment receive
                                                                    safety and health of workers are allowed time off work
adequate information concerning:
                                                                    without loss of pay and are provided with the necessary
                                                                     equipment to enable them to fulfil their obligations arising
 (a) the safety and health risks and the preventive measures         from this Directive.
     and activities in respect of the undertaking in general
     and in respect of each worker's workstation and/or job;
                                                                                          Training of workers
 (b) the measures taken pursuant to Article 7(4).
                                                                                               Article 11
     Such information shall also be provided to temporary
     workers and the employers of workers from outside
      firms present in the undertaking.                              1. The employer shall ensure that each worker receives
                                                                     adequate safety and health training specific to his
                                                                     workstation or job;
 2. Workers or workers' representatives with specific
 responsibility for the protection of the safety and health of       — on recruitment,
 workers shall have access to:
                                                                     — in the event of a transfer or change of job,
 (a) the risk analysis and analysis of protective measures
      referred to in Article 8 (1) (a) and (b);                      — in the event of a change in the work equipment.
 (b) the list and the report on accidents and occupational           The training shall be adapted to take account of new or
      diseases referred to in Article 8 (1) (c) and (d);             changed risks.
 ---pagebreak--- 30. 5. 88                                Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 141/5
2. The training referred to in paragraph 1 shall also be                the responsible authority to protect the safety and
given, under the same conditions, to temporary workers                  health of workers,
present in the undertaking or establishment. The employer
shall also ensure that workers from outside firms engaged           — perform their tasks in accordance with the safety and
in work in the undertaking and/or establishment have                    health training and instructions they have received,
received training from their own firms appropriate to the
work in which they are engaged.                                     — cooperate in ensuring that the working environment
                                                                        and working conditions are safe and pose no risk to
3. Workers' representatives with specific responsibility                safety and health within their field of activity, and
for the protection of the safety and health of workers shall            monitor the effectiveness of the safety and health
be entitled to appropriate training.                                    measures taken.
4. The training referred to in paragraph 1, 2 and 3 shall be
                                                                                              Article 13
provided during working hours and shall not be at the
expense of the workers.
                                                                    The Council, acting on proposals from the Commission,
                                                                    shall adopt individual Directives laying down specific
5.   Member States:
                                                                    provisions concerning chiefly the technical areas listed in
                                                                    the Annex hereto.
— shall ensure that guidelines are drawn up concerning the
    content and duration of the training courses provided
    for in paragraphs 1 and 3,                                                                Article 14
— shall establish general rules concerning the conditions           For the purposes of adapting this Directive and the
    under which this training shall be provided.                    Directives provided for in Article 13 under the conditions
                                                                    specified in each of them, to take account of:
                   Obligations on workers
                                                                    — the adoption of Directives in the field of technical
                                                                        harmonization and standardization,
                                                                    — technical progress, changes in international regulations
                           Article 12
                                                                        or specifications, and new findings,
                                                                    the Commission shall be assisted by a committee composed
1. It shall be the duty of each worker during his working           of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by
hours to take reasonable care of his own safety and health          the representative of the Commission.
and that of all other persons affected by his actions or
omissions at work.
                                                                    The representative of the Commission shall submit to the
                                                                    Committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The
2.   To this end, workers must:                                     Committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a
                                                                    time limit which the Chairman may lay down according to
                                                                    the urgency of the matter. The opinion shall be delivered by
— make correct use of machinery, apparatus, tools,                  the majority laid down in Article 148(2) of the Treaty in the
    dangerous substances, transport equipment and other             case of Decisions which the Council is required to adopt on
    means of production,                                            a proposal from the Commission. The votes of the
                                                                    representatives of the Member States within the Committee
                                                                    shall be weighted in the manner set out in that article. The
— make correct use of the personal protective equipment             Chairman shall not vote.
    supplied to them and, after use, return it to its proper
    place,
                                                                    The Commission shall adopt the measures envisaged if they
                                                                    are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee.
— refrain from changing or removing unnecessarily safety
    devices fitted to tools, pieces of apparatus, etc., and use     If the measures envisaged are not in accordance with the
    such devices correctly,                                         opinion of the Committee, or if no opinion is delivered, the
                                                                    Commission shall, without delay, submit to the Council a
                                                                    proposal relating to the measures to be taken. The Council
— notify the employer immediately of any safety and/or
                                                                    shall act by a qualified majority.
    health hazards which they have noticed,
                                                                    If, on the expiry of the period to be laid down in each act
— cooperate with their employer for as long as necessary            adopted by the Council under this paragraph but which
    in order to fulfil any tasks or requirements imposed by         may not in any case exceed three months from the date of
 ---pagebreak--- No C 141/6                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                     30. 5. 88
referral to the Council, the Council has not acted, the                 2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission
proposed measures shall be adopted by the Commission.                   the texts of the provisions of national law which they adopt
                                                                        in the field covered by this Directive.
                       Final provisions                                 3. Member States shall report to the Commission every
                                                                        two years on the practical implementation of the provisions
                                                                        of this Directive, indicating the points of view of employers
                           Article 15                                   and workers. The Commission shall inform the Committee
                                                                        and the Tripartite Committee.
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws,
regulations and administrative provisions necessary to                                             Article 16
comply with this Directive by 1 January 1991 at the latest
and shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.                      This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
                                                                 ANNEX
                                   LIST OF TECHNICAL AREAS REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 13
              — Workplaces.
              — Work equipment.
              — Personal protective equipment.
              — Work with visual display units.
              — Handling of heavy loads involving risk of back injury.
               Proposal for a Council Directive concerning the minimum safety and health requirements for
                                                              the workplace
                              First individual Directive within the meaning of Article 13 of Directive ... (l)
                                                           COM(88) 74 final
                               (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 11 March 1988)
                                                              (88/C 141/02)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                                In cooperation with the European Parliament,
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
                                                                         Whereas Article 118A of the EEC Treaty provides that the
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 118A
                                                                         Council shall issue Directives containing minimum
 thereof,
                                                                         requirements designed to encourage improvements, espe-
                                                                         cially in the working environment, as regards the health
 Having regard to the Commission proposal drawn up after                 and safety of workers;
 consultation with the Advisory Committee for Safety,
 Hygiene and Health Protection at Work (2),
                                                                         Whereas Article 118A also recommends that Directives
                                                                         shall avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social
                                                                         constraints which would hold back the creation and
 Committee,
                                                                         development of SMUs;
 (!) Doc. COM(88) 73 final.                                              Whereas the Communication from the Commission on its
 (2) Council Decision 74/325/EEC (OJ No L 185, 9. 7. 1974, p. 15).       programme concerning safety, hygiene and health at