Council Resolution

of 3 June 2002

on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2002-2006)

(2002/C 161/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Commission communication of 11 March 2002 on adapting to change in work and society: a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2002-2006), which is one of the points included in the European Social Agenda;

Whereas Article 137 of the Treaty establishing the European Community has made for a substantial corpus of Community legislation on health and safety at work;

Whereas health and safety are, without doubt, key ingredients in employment quality, represent one of the Union's most important social policy areas and comprise a major economic dimension;

Whereas implementation of the legislation has not yet achieved the expected results; the figures for accidents at work remain high in absolute terms and have begun rising in some Member States and in certain sectors, while accident figures in the candidate countries are significantly higher than the Community average; it is therefore important that the new strategy should remedy this situation;

Whereas the European social model is based on a smoothly operating economy, on a high level of social protection and education and on social dialogue, which involve improving quality of employment with particular reference to health and safety at work;

Whereas in Barcelona on 15 and 16 March 2002 the European Council invited the Council to examine as a matter of priority the Commission communication on a Community health and safety strategy,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING RESOLUTION:

I 1. The Council notes the Commission's opinion that, in order to achieve the aim of constant improvement of well-being at work, the parties involved must pursue a number of objectives, including:

- reducing the number of occupational accidents and illnesses. For this purpose, quantified objectives should be set, which presupposes stepping up the work in progress on harmonising statistics on accidents at work and occupational illnesses,

- placing more emphasis on the prevention of occupational illnesses, especially those which continue to affect a large number of European workers, such as those caused by the use of dangerous substances such as asbestos, hearing loss and musculo-skeletal disorders,

- taking into account social risks such as stress and harassment at work, as well as the risks associated with dependence on alcohol, drugs and medicines,

- taking into consideration changes in the composition of the labour force, due to greater numbers of women entering the labour market, ageing of the workforce, demographic change, the circumstances of workers with disabilities and ethnic and cultural diversity in the workplace, as well as their implications as regards assessing and preventing risks of accidents and illnesses. To this end, preventive measures should take more account of the age factor, especially with regard to young people and ageing workers,

- taking account of changes in forms of employment, work organisation and working time,

- taking the size of firms into account, in particular as regards improving access for small and medium-sized businesses, micro-businesses or self-employed workers to training, information, awareness-raising and risk-prevention schemes,

- identifying, disseminating and implementing good practices which create working conditions conducive to improving the health and safety of workers.

2. The Council notes that, in order to instil a culture of prevention and influence behaviour, knowledge of risks on the part of those affected must be improved through education, awareness training and anticipation of new risks.

To this end it is necessary to:

(a) promote a prevention culture right from the earliest stages of education and provide continuing vocational training, dispensed on a regular basis and geared to everyday work;

(b) enhance awareness among those concerned of the need to reintegrate disabled people into the employment market;

(c) identify and analyse risks on the basis of systematic collection of scientific information and opinion. Research centres should also coordinate their programmes, focusing them on problem-solving and arranging for the research findings to be reported to business;

(d) improve understanding of the human and behavioural factors involved, so as better to turn knowledge of risks and of prevention into practical action;

(d) (a) raise the awareness of those affected by disseminating information and analysing examples showing the importance of good working conditions for productivity, quality and performance;

(e) promote the exchange of information on good practice between Member States;

(e) (a) integrate health and safety at work into business management and other activities giving rise to a systematic approach to well-being at work.

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work must play a leading role in work on collation and dissemination of information on good practice, awareness raising and risk anticipation. In that connection the Council also notes that, in the second half of 2002, the Commission will present a communication assessing the Agency.

3. The Council agrees with the Commission that the effective enforcement of Community law is a precondition for improving the quality of the working environment.

This calls in particular for effective, equivalent inspection and monitoring of the implementation of legislation in all Member States. In this connection, the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors will play a vital role in promoting the exchange of information and experience and organising cooperation and mutual assistance. Hence, there must be practical encouragement for common inspection objectives, common principles for labour inspection and ways and means of evaluating national inspection systems by reference to these principles.

In addition, it will be essential to prepare non-binding instruments (technical handbooks and codes of good practice, etc.) to make it easier to implement legal provisions in businesses.

The Council notes that the Commission intends to:

- present legislative proposals with a view to consolidating Community Directives and rationalising reports on their implementation,

- draw up, in conjunction with the Advisory Committee and the social partners, guides on how to apply Directives, making allowance for the variety of sectors of activity and businesses concerned.

4. The Council shares the Commission's opinion that social dialogue is a key factor in finding new ways forward, both in effectively implementing the legislation in force and in addressing the risks and problems specific to the various sectors and occupations, and emphasises the importance of corporate social responsibility.

5. The Council notes the need to promote the inclusion of health and safety at work in other Community policies. In that connection it will be necessary to:

- improve integration of health and safety at work in the European employment strategy, taking into account the Barcelona European Council conclusions on simplifying the employment guidelines, without making them any less effective,

- improve coordination with Community rules on the manufacture and marketing of work equipment and chemicals,

- strengthen, through cooperation, links between the Community's new strategy on health and safety and its public health strategy,

- develop a coordinated approach with other policies pursuing protection objectives and based on preventive measures, especially research, education, transport, environmental and civil protection policy and the common agricultural and fisheries policies,

- ensure that all current rules on health and safety at work are observed in the performance of public procurement contracts.

6. The Council recognises that enlargement is one of the main challenges faced by the European Union, requiring steps to ensure the enactment and effective implementation of the Community acquis in matters of health and safety at work by candidate countries and the adaptation of Community structures for consultation and for collection, analysis and dissemination of information, such as the Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (Bilbao) and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Dublin). This calls for effective transfer of experience and know-how, in particular by:

- strengthening technical assistance programmes, through association and twinning arrangements,

- developing machinery for exchange of experience and access to knowledge and to Community research findings, by integrating the candidate countries into the institutions and bodies concerned,

- strengthening social dialogue at all levels, particularly within businesses,

- integrating the candidate countries into Community work on harmonising statistics.

7. The Council notes the need to step up international cooperation and the Commission's intention of continuing to cooperate actively with United Nations agencies and especially the International Labour Organisation, concentrating on the following issues:

- eliminating the worst forms of child labour in the world,

- promoting improved health and safety at work throughout the world,

- the effects of dependence on alcohol, drugs and medicines on health and safety at work.

The Council recognises that cooperation with third countries, in particular those of the Mediterranean region, ASEAN, NAFTA and Mercosur, is vital for ensuring that minimum health and safety standards are met, together with cooperation and experience-sharing under the Transatlantic Pact with the United States of America.

II The Council:

1. welcomes the Commission communication on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2002-2006);

2. considers that the communication in question provides a valuable framework for further effective implementation of Article 137 at Community level;

3. shares the Commission's opinion that Community policy on health and safety at work should have as its purpose a constant improvement in well-being at work, in physical, mental and social terms;

4. stresses the need to:

- take into account changes in the world of work and improve health and safety at work, with the establishment of a safe and healthy working environment as one of the key ingredients in quality of employment,

- consolidate a risk-prevention culture, based on a combination of various policy instruments and on cooperation between those involved in health and safety and others who can influence employment quality and working conditions, as well as by integrating health and safety at work into strategic corporate decisions,

- show that an effective policy on health and safety at work is a factor in competitiveness while, conversely, lack of political intervention makes for increased costs,

- base any possible Community instrument on an adequate technical knowledge of both risks and risk prevention strategies,

- involve all parties concerned, public authorities and social partners in carrying out the strategy, in order that these objectives can be achieved;

5. calls on the Member States to:

- develop and implement coordinated, coherent prevention policies, geared to national conditions, with measurable targets set in this context for reducing accidents at work and occupational illnesses, especially in those sectors of activity in which rates are above average,

- ensure better implementation of the legislation in force, in particular through more effective inspection and monitoring, through making available to businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, suitable advisory and consultancy services, as well as through improved occupational risk-prevention training and the adoption of measures aimed specifically at reducing accidents at work and occupational illnesses in high-risk sectors,

- instil a real culture of prevention, by including basic occupational prevention principles in educational curricula and further training schemes, as well as by means of occupational health and safety awareness and promotion campaigns;

6. calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up work in hand on harmonisation of statistics on accidents at work and occupational illnesses, so as to have available comparable data from which to make an objective assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the measures taken under the new Community strategy;

7. calls on the Commission to:

- include in the social agenda scoreboard the measures to be carried out in order to put the strategy into practice, together with a schedule for implementing them,

- submit to it, by way of the Commission's right of initiative, any proposal needed for achieving the objectives set out in the new strategy and in particular those needed to consolidate, simplify and rationalise the existing legal framework and adapt it to technical progress, so that existing legislation can be better enforced,

- promote cooperation between the Member States and the social partners at European level, with a view to the future enlargement of the European Union, through the adaptation and rationalisation of the existing advisory bodies and the Bilbao Agency. The Council welcomes the Commission's intention to submit to it proposals for merging the two advisory bodies into a single Advisory Committee on Health and Safety at Work and for improving the Bilbao Agency's operation and tasks in the light of the evaluation report and the Advisory Committee's opinion, tasks which should include organising exchange of good practice and experience between Member States,

- incorporate in the annual summary report submitted to the spring European Council the relevant aspects of the strategy's implementation;

8. calls on the social partners to:

- play an active part in disseminating the basic principles of this new strategy at European, national, regional and individual business level,

- promote and publicise in the workplace the proper application of occupational risk-prevention principles, particularly through sectoral social dialogue at all levels,

- provide members of their respective organisations with access to competent advisory services and appropriate training in health and safety,

- cooperate with their countries' authorities on designing and implementing Member States' national policies concerning the sphere covered by Article 137,

- cooperate, at individual business level, in designing the working environment in such a way as to protect the health and safety of workers and in implementing the relevant arrangements for the protection of workers.