CELEX: 51990PC0588
Language: en
Date: 1991-02-28
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO IMPROVE THE MOBILITY AND THE SAFE TRANSPORT TO WORK OF WORKERS WITH REDUCED MOBILITY

16. 3. 91                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               No C 68/7
                                                           II
                                                   (Preparatory Acts)
                                              COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Directive on minimum requirements to improve the mobility and the
                               safe transport to work of workers with reduced mobility
                                                     (91/C 68/08)
                                            COM(90) 588 final — SYN 327
                                  (Submitted by the Commission on 11 February 1991)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                      measures must concern, in particular, according to the
                                                              capacities of the beneficiaries, accessibility, mobility and
                                                              means of transport;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 118a
thereof,
                                                              Whereas it is appropriate to supplement existing or
                                                              future Community legislation on the safety and health of
                                                              workers with reduced mobility at the workplace, by
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,            provisions that will assist them in gaining access to
drawn up after consulting the Advisory Committee on           employment and thus reduce the hazards specifically
Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work,                affecting them during travel to work;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,
                                                              Whereas it is clear that modes of transport which do not
                                                              take account of the needs of workers with reduced
                                                              mobility give rise to hazards to the health and safety of
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and              these persons;
Social Committee,
Whereas Article 118a of the EEC Treaty provides that          Whereas it must be possible for workers with reduced
the Council shall adopt, by means of directives,              mobility to use transport to travel to and from work
minimum requirements to encourage improvements,               without running any more risks than other workers;
especially in the working environment, as regards the         whereas the safety and health in the working envi-
health and safety of workers;                                 ronment of workers with reduced mobility must be
                                                              assured by adopting the requisite measures to enable
                                                              them to travel safely to and from work.
Whereas, pursuant to the above Article, such Directives
must avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal
constraints in a way which would hold back the creation
and development of small and medium-sized under-              Whereas the measures to improve mobility and transport
takings ;                                                     concern workers with reduced mobility, regardless of
                                                              whether their handicap is of a physical — including
                                                              sensory — or mental origin;
Whereas, under the terms of point 26 of Title I of the
Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of
Workers, all disabled persons, whatever the origin and
nature of their disablement, must be entitled to              Whereas the choice should be left to the Member States
additional concrete measures aimed at improving their         as regards, on the one hand, the options of giving
social and professional integration; whereas these            workers with reduced mobility access to public transport,
 ---pagebreak---  N o C 68/8                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                 16. 3. 91
 transport organized by the employer or special transport           engender any additional financial burden for transport
 services for the disabled, and on the other hand, creating         for such workers; whereas this should likewise apply to
 incentives to assist transport of the disabled on condition       workers with reduced mobility who, because of their
 that such measures have an equivalent effect;                      handicap, need to be accompanied by another person or
                                                                    a guide dog if they are to make use of transport;
 Whereas it is therefore appropriate to lay down                   Whereas this Directive makes a contribution to the
 minimum requirements to ensure that workers with                  implementation of the aims set out in the European
 reduced mobility can avail themselves of sufficient means         Parliament resolution of 16 September 1987 on the
 of transport adapted to their special needs; whereas such         transport of handicapped and elderly persons (*), which
 needs include access to transport, the accessibility of the       stressed the importance of mobility as being essential in
 means of transport, facilities enabling workers with              finding and retaining a suitable job;
 reduced mobility to travel safely, and signs identifying
 such means of transport;
                                                                   Whereas it would be advisable, in order to meet the
                                                                   specific requirements of workers with reduced mobility,
                                                                   for schemes receiving financial assistance from the
                                                                   Structural Funds to take account of the aims of this
Whereas to take into account the cost of converting                Directive,
 means of transport to make them accessible to workers
with reduced mobility, it is appropriate to provide for
 alternative measures which, while guaranteeing safe
 travel, offer the necessary flexibility for finding solutions
                                                                   HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
 adapted to the particular circumstances;
                                                                                             Article 1
Whereas, where the employer provides the transport to              The purpose of this Directive is to facilitate the safe
work for his workers, he must be obliged to bear in mind           travel of workers with reduced mobility in order to assist
the specific needs of those of his workers, apprentices            them in gaining access to the place of employment.
and trainees with reduced mobility;
                                                                                             Article 2
Whereas in a large majority of Member States there are             For the purposes of this Directive,
special transport services intended for disabled persons,
laid on by public and private bodies; whereas for reasons
of economic cost and in keeping with the Commission's
overall and consistent policy of economic and social inte-         (a) 'worker with reduced mobility'shall mean any worker
gration of the disabled, priority must be given to the                 who has special difficulty in using public transport
most severely disabled for the use of such special                      owing to a serious handicap of a physical or mental
transport services;                                                     origin.
                                                                   (b) 'means of transport'shall mean:
Whereas special attention needs to be given to the
problem of training and informing workers with reduced
mobility to enable them to make optimum use of the                     — public transport,
means of transport at their disposal; whereas, in this
respect, appropriate training should be provided for the
staff of transport available to workers with reduced                   — transport provided by the employer,
mobility to help reduce or eliminate the risk inherent in
travel for such persons;
                                                                       — special transport services for the disabled.
Whereas providing means of transport adapted to the
needs of workers with reduced mobility should not                  C) OJ No C 281, 19. 10. 1987, p. 85.
 ---pagebreak---  16. 3. 91                             Official Journal of   European Communities                                No C 68/9
                           Article 3                                                      Article 6
 In order to fulfil the aims set out in Article 1, Member      The Commission shall draw up every two years a report
 States shall take:                                            on the implementation by the Member States of
                                                               measures covered by Articles 3, 4 and 5 and shall
                                                               transmit this to the European Parliament, Council and
 (a) the requisite measures to ensure that means of            Economic and Social Committee.
     transport are provided and are accessible, allowing
     for the interchangeability of means of transport; or
                                                                                          Article 7
 (b) all measures to facilitate the transport of workers       This Directive shall not prejudice any existing or future
     with reduced mobility, on condition that these have       national or Community provisions which are more
     an effect equivalent to the measures mentioned            favourable to the safe travel of workers with reduced
     in (a).                                                   mobility.
The means of transport provided for workers with
reduced mobility must meet the minimum requirements                                       Article 8
laid down in the Annex.                                        The Member States shall bring into force the laws, regu-
                                                               lations and administrative provisions required to conform
                                                               with this Directive:
                           Article 4
The Member States shall take measures to promote:              (a) no later than 31 December 1992 by presenting a
                                                                    timetable for the implementation of the measures
                                                                    referred to in Articles 3 and 4 by 31 December 1999;
(a) training schemes to help workers with reduced
     mobility travel in safety;
                                                               (b) no later than 31 December 1992 for the measures
                                                                    referred to in Article 5 to enable the said measures to
(b) the requisite training for the staff of public transport        be implemented no later than 31 December 1994.
     companies to help workers with reduced mobility use
     the transport provided for them;                          They shall inform the Commission directly of their
                                                               implementation.
(c) information and advice for workers with reduced
     mobility.                                                 When Member States adopt these provisions, these shall
                                                               contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accom-
                                                               panied by such reference at the time of their official
                           Article 5                           publication. The procedure for such reference shall be
                                                               adopted by Member States.
When workers with reduced mobility cannot travel
without the help of an accompanying person or some
other form of assistance, Member States shall take                                        Article 9
measures to ensure that such assistance does not give rise
to additional transport costs for the workers in question.     This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
 ---pagebreak--- ^oCo^BtO                               C^ffici^iJourri^ofuieEuror^^nCor^r^uniu^                                        to^^t
                                                             ^t^^^A^
                                                           ^Article ^ a ^
         The obligauons laid down in this Annex are applicable whenever the characteristics of the public transport
         facilities or their infrastructure so require.
           1 Access to t r a ^ o r t
               Transportmustbemadeavailabletoworkers with reduced mobility in s u c h a w a y a s t o m e e t their
               special transport needs.This means asufficientnumber and frequency of services and appropriate
               transport schedules.
          ti     Acce^^tyof^e^^of^^^^^v^tedfo^^
              The minimum requirements set out below concern the measures adopted to give application to points
               above.
               ^    ^afe access to and from transport facilities (^entranceBexit^ for workers with reduced mobility
                    should be provided in one of three possible ways^
                   — either by builtin technical aids such as lowered floors^ lifting platforms^ etc.^ or
                   — by technical aids external to the transport vehicles for example at the stop or platforms such as
                        mobile ramps^lowdift elevating platform trucks^ folding platforms etc.^ or
                   — by personal assistance from specially trained transport company staff.
              ^ ^ t least oneentranceBexit must be designed toallow workers with reducedmobilitytoboardB
                   alight from the mode of transport safely.
              ^    Accessibihty implies compatibilitybetweenthemeansof transport and the correspondinginfra^
                   structure to ensure that the worker withreducedmobilityhassafeaccesstothesaid meansof
                   transport.
         1U      ^ac^t^estobe^r^v^^^d^e^e^^oft^^^^fo^worke^w^d^^ed^ced^ob^^y
              The interior of the means of transport must provide the following for workers with reduced mobility^
              in accordance with the specific requirements of different types of handicaps
              — reserved seats in sufficient number and in appropriate positions^
             — corridors^
              — toilet and washing facilities.
         tV.^^s
              ^igns for the use of the means of transport for workers with reduced mobility^together with the access
              facilities to the associated infrastructure^must accord withthe special needs of the various types of
             workers with reduced mobility.