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Future European Health and Safety at Work (HSW) strategy: ETUC response to Commission consultation and new publication New scope for the Community health and Safety at work strategy 2007-2012

Future European Health and Safety at Work (HSW) strategy: ETUC response to Commission consultation and new publication New scope for the Community health and Safety at work strategy 2007-2012
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has just sent the European Commission its response to the consultation on the Community strategy for health and safety at work 2007-2012. It endorses al l points of the stance worked out by the Workers Group of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work. The ETUC stresses that:

1. Legislative harmonization of working conditions remains a priority aim. It is against any attempt to deregulate HSW. It specifically calls for a directive on musculoskeletal disorders and beefed-up provisions on chemical hazards and carcinogens.

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   The new strategy should set precise objectives, identify policy instruments and fix clear deadlines.

3. Health and safety at work policies must be linked more closely to gender equality policies.

4. The Commission needs to be better-resourced for health and safety at work matters.

New publication New scope for the Community health and Safety at work strategy 2007-2012 by Laurent Vogel and Pascal Paoli

The European Commission will unveil its new health and safety at work strategy for 2007-2012 in the coming months.

Europe's trade unions mean to help inform the debate on it. Through their input to a document drawn up in the "Workers Group" of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work, they spelled out what unions expect from the future Community strategy. That document has just been published by the ETUI-REHS.

The 48-page brochure reviews the failings of the strategy pursued from 2002 to 2006 to recommend a new strategy built around practical initiatives and a definite timetable. The publication makes the union case against any "break from introducing new legislation".

The Community agenda must put a central focus on two key risks: musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), the main cause of illness related to a pressurized work organisation, and chemicals, a major cause of work-related health problems, where the regulatory framework is in the midst of a far-reaching overhaul.

The right of all workers to collective representation in health and safety is another focus of trade union demands. The measures needed to address the daunting challenges of EU enlargement also attract the unions' attention.

The second part of the brochure gives a capsule view of the surveys done on the health impact of working conditions in the EU.

Contents

• New scope for the Community health and safety at work strategy 2007-2012 by Laurent Vogel
• Health at work in Europe. A stocktaking through the working conditions surveys by Pascal Paoli

Also available in French.

Available on http://hesa.etui-rehs.org/uk/publications/publications.asp

Contact: Géraldine Hofmann,
Assistant, Information and Publications
Health & Safety Department
ETUI-REHS - European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health & Safety
5 bd du Roi Albert II - B-1210 Brussels, Belgium.
Tel.: +32 2 224 05 63 (60) - Fax: +32 2 224 05 61
Email: ghofmann@etui-rehs.org
www.etui-rehs.org/hesa

Since 1 April 2005, TUTB, ETUI and ETU CO have merged into the European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health and Safety (ETUI-REHS).