EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG Social Dialogue, Social Rights, Working Conditions, Adaptation to Change Health, Safety and Hygiene at Work Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors Annual Report 2009 Adopted at the 64 th SLIC Plenary Dublin, Ireland 22 May 2013 Doc.274_EN
CONTENTS 1. Foreword 2 2. Overview: The Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors 3 3. Activities of the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors 3 Common principles for inspection 4 Evaluating the national inspection systems Common inspection objectives 5 European information and inspection campaigns Manual handling of loads Risks from chemicals in the workplace Thematic Days Cooperation between labour inspectorates 8 Chemical substances Machinery Rapid exchange of knowledge Inspector exchange scheme Publications and guidelines 10 Annexes 12 1. Extract Commission Decision, 95/319/EC Article 3 2. Members of the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (2007-2009) 3. Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors - Working Groups (2009) 2
1. FOREWORD We are pleased to present the Annual Report on the activities of the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (SLIC) in 2009. This Report is prepared in accordance with Article 12 of the Commission's Decision of 12 July 1995 setting up a Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors 1. The format of this Report follows that adopted last year; additional background to particular projects can be found therein 2. The year 2009 has been both varied and productive. Particular highlights include: o The summing up seminar of the SLIC European Campaign on Manual Handling of Loads. This special, international event, first of its kind, took place on 21-22 April 2009 in Wroclaw (southwest Poland) o the strengthening and growth of SLIC-KSS, an information exchange system for the labour inspection services in 30 European countries with the organisation of the first "KSS-LINES Training Event" which was held on 1 & 2 December 2009; o the continued strengthening and cooperation with the Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work through the creation of a joint ad-hoc group "SLIC MACHEX & ACSH - EU Harmonization of competency standards for crane examiners"; o The creation of the Working Group for the European Campaign on Risks from Chemicals in the Workplace. These activities take forward the plan of work published by the Committee 3. We would like to acknowledge the support and commitment of the Committee, the national labour inspectorates and their inspectors, who through their active and enthusiastic participation in plenaries, working groups, and the conduct of campaigns have contributed to a successful 2009. Chairman Costas Constantinou Health, Safety and Hygiene Unit Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities European Commission Luxembourg Secretariat to the Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors 2009 Andrew Murray Anna-Maria Luciano 1 OJ No. L 188, 9.8.95, p.11 2 Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors: Annual Report 2008 ref.: doc.1210_31/07/2009 ADONIS D/015057 3 Resolution on the role of SLIC in the Community strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012, Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors, October 2007, ref.: doc.2613 (2007) 3
2. OVERVIEW: THE COMMITTEE OF SENIOR LABOUR INSPECTORS The Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (SLIC) was established in 1995. The Committee consists of 2 representatives - typically the Directors or Chief Executive Officers - from each labour inspection services of the Member States. The Committee assists the Commission on problems relating to the enforcement of Community law on health and safety, and encourages its effective enforcement, notably by means of a closer cooperation between the national labour inspection services. In so doing, the Committee works towards the achievement of a series of objectives (see Annex 1). The administration of the Committee is undertaken by a Bureau. The Bureau comprises the chairman and a troika drawn from the Member States which hold the Presidency - past, present and future - and it is supported by a secretariat. In 2009, the Committee comprised 54 members (see Annex 2) and representatives from the EFTA countries, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). In 2009, the Committee held its (2) plenary meetings in Prague (28-29 May) and in Stockholm (22 & 23 November) during the Czech Republic and Swedish Presidencies of the European Union. Throughout the year, working groups (see Annex 3) worked to deliver the 2009 components of the Committee's Plan of Work, 2007-2009. Each plenary meeting was preceded by a thematic day at which a topic of mutual interest, and future impact, was examined. In 2009, the thematic days were devoted to: 1) Reducing the incidence rate of occupational accidents and diseases in line with the Community strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012 Role and activities of national labour inspectorates and 2) the Supervision of psychosocial risk assessment 3. ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE OF SENIOR LABOUR INSPECTORS The activities of the Committee are set out in a three-year programme of work. The preparation of the Committee's programme has taken into account aims of the Commission's new strategy for health and safety at work, including the following elements which are directed specifically toward the Committee (see footnote 4): examine the reasons for the different incidence rates of occupational accidents in the Member States and discuss their experience of innovative solutions which have proved effective; do more, when assessing the impact of the REACH Regulation, to examine the role of labour inspectorates and develop synergies in cooperation with other inspection bodies responsible for market surveillance and environmental policy; do more to develop methods of exchanging information on the problems of applying the legislation which allow the problems to be addressed jointly; strengthen cooperation with the Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work, particularly with regard to preparing legislative initiatives and evaluating the implementation of directives. In respect of the final bullet in the preceding section, the Committee supported 2 specific initiatives of the tripartite Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work (ACSH), through collaborating with the ACSH Working Party Community Strategy implementation and AC action program in their preparations for the second workshop National OSH Strategies which was held on 7 & 9 October 2009 in Luxembourg. This workshop aimed to share good practice in the design of a national strategy for occupational health and safety and with particular reference to the objectives of the Community strategy for reducing occupational accidents and disease. The Workshop covered three panels; 1) 4
Experiences in objective-setting and monitoring of national strategies; 2) Delivering national strategies, experiences with concrete action programmes and 3) OSH strategies in context experiences with specific challenges/ A representative from the Committee (SLIC) participated in the workshop using material drawn from various labour inspection services, and in particular those members of the SLIC Working Group Strategy. The progress reported in the following sections is structured against the relevant principal objective(s) and the activities of the Committee, as set out in the current work programme for 2009 (see footnote 3). COMMON PRINCIPLES FOR INSPECTION Common principles of labour inspection in the field of health and safety at work and developing methods of assessing the national systems of inspection in relation to those principals. (Article 3.1) EVALUATING THE NATIONAL INSPECTION SYSTEMS While responsibility for the enforcement of Community law lies with Member States, SLIC plays a central role in promoting the correct and uniform implementation and enforcement of Community directives on health and safety. To support this role, the Committee published a number of Common Principles 4. The Principles comprise both core and developmental elements. The former concentrate on the implementation and enforcement of EU legislation, and are vital in all Member States; the latter address the broader aims of the previous Community strategy 5 and the Committee's Billund Resolution 6. The essential purposes of these evaluations are: to review the capability of the national labour inspection system to implement and enforce EU Directives on health and safety at work; to promote exchanges of information, ways of working (good practice) and experience between Member States e.g. the early recognition of trends and challenges for the labour inspectorates; and to promote greater consistency. In 2009, the Committee undertook 3 evaluations. The composition of the evaluation teams are set out beneath. Evaluating the national labour inspection systems. Evaluation teams in 2009. ESTONIA MALTA CYPRUS Chair Belgium Italy Greece Bulgaria Austria Denmark Denmark Belgium Ireland Lithuania Cyprus Malta Portugal Greece Slovakia Sweden Poland Spain Evaluation Team UK Slovenia Sweden These evaluations were conducted in accordance with new guidelines adopted by the Committee to improve the planning, execution and outputs from evaluations in order to gain more benefit for the individual Member States and the Committee 7. Later on, one specific area will be to review 4 Common principles for labour inspection in relation to health and safety in the workplace, September 2004 5 Community strategy on health and safety at work, 2002-2006. COM(02)118, European Commission 6 Resolution on the role of SLIC in the new Community strategy on safety and health at work 2002-2006. SLIC, 2002 7 Evaluation reference manual: Carrying out a SLIC evaluation Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors, December 2008 5
periodically the executive summaries from the evaluation reports and identify common issues or trends suitable for future Thematic Days. COMMON INSPECTION OBJECTIVES Developing exchanges between national labour inspection services of their experience in monitoring the enforcement of secondary Community law on health and safety at work, so as to ensure its consistent enforcement throughout the Community. (Article 3.3) European Information and Inspection Campaigns Manual Handling of Loads: "Lighten the Load" The Committee delivered a European campaign between July and December 2008 involving 26 national labour inspectorates from the European Economic Area; the campaign targeted persons employed in the construction and the retail trade sectors. More than 10 000 sites and enterprises were inspected on core common issues such as risk assessments for the manual handling of loads and preventive measures to avoid and reduce the risk of injury. The Working Group Manual Handling of Loads Campaign 2008, led by a project management team from the Polish labour inspectorate, coordinated and led this Campaign. The material developed by the Polish labour inspectorate.g. animated movies and training materials, to support the activities of the labour inspectorates in each Member State was made accessible via a dedicated web site in the official languages For the first time the SLIC campaign was concluded by a summing up seminar. This special, international event took place on 21-22 April 2009 in Wroclaw (south-west Poland) under the patronage of the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee (SLIC). Four Working subgroups took forward their separate tasks on (1) inspection guidelines, (2) training materials for national trainers, (3) communications (publications, media and web site), and (4) the summing up Seminar. The sum up Seminar did not mark the end of national efforts on this topic. The products developed for the Campaign remain available at the web site which the Polish labour inspectorate will maintain and update with Members' information and good practices until 2012 at the following address http://www.handlingloads.eu/en/site/ The "Manual handling of loads 2008/2009 Evaluation report" was published in 2009 Risks from chemicals in the workplace 6
At its Lyon plenary (2 December 2008), the Committee agreed to initiate work for a European enforcement campaign to target the assessment of risks from chemicals in the workplace. The European Campaign on Risk Assessment in the use of Dangerous Substances was launched in December 2009. The Working Group Campaign on Chemicals Risks led by a project management team from the Portuguese labour inspectorate authority (ACT), coordinated and led the development of this Campaign. The campaign adopted a sector-based approach with a view to increasing the awareness of risk prevention amongst small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The candidate employment sectors include: furniture production & forestry; vehicle maintenance; bakeries; health care; and cleaning services. The objectives of the Campaign set out by the Working Group were agreed at 5their meeting in 2009, these are threefold: i) to raise awareness in SMEs about the importance of risk assessment, and to demystify risk evaluation; ii) to encourage worker participation in the whole process; and iii) to involve stakeholders at an early stage. THEMATIC DAYS Two thematic days took place in 2009 under the auspices of the Czech Republic and Swedish residencies. Thematic day in Prague (CZ) Reducing the incidence rate of occupational accidents and diseases in line with the Community strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012 Role and activities of national labour inspectorates Recognising the role that labour inspection services contribute to reducing incidence rates, the Thematic Day shared examples of national initiatives to improve performance in various employment sectors. More specifically, the examples demonstrated inspection as part of broad, longer term and innovative programmes which involve partnership actions and incentive schemes The thematic day in Stockholm on Supervision of psychosocial risk assessments had been adopted at the Plenary in Lyon 2008. The Committee had discussed the role of competent authorities in the area of negative stress and psychosocial problems at work during the previous Swedish Presidency in 2001. This event provided the opportunity to review what programmes and measures Member States had developed in the intervening years. The topic was of particular interest to the EU-10 accession countries from 2004. The Committee learned about the practical toolkits developed for employers and employees in 9 Member States: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and UK. Representatives of the Swedish social partners participated, and Mr. Heinrich Wollny, DG-EMPL Unit F.1 (Social Dialogue, Industrial Relations). COOPERATION BETWEEN LABOUR INSPECTORATES 7
Developing exchanges between national labour inspection services of their experiences in monitoring the enforcement of secondary Community law on health and safety at work, so as to ensure consistent enforcement throughout the Community. (Article 3.3) Developing a reliable and efficient system of rapid information exchange between labour inspectorates on all problems encountered in monitoring the enforcement of Community legislation in the field of health and safety at work and to assist in resolving any cross-border problems. (Article 3.6) A number of working groups that support the Committee focus on specific technical and administrative aspects of the implementation and compliance with Community legislation. The sections below set out some of their activities in 2009. Chemical substances Working Group Chemex: in 2009 the WG published a framework to assist the national labour inspectorates (NLIs) in their enforcement of the REACH Regulation as a competent authority, or when working with the competent authority in their Member State. 8 This framework has been shared with the European Chemicals Agency's Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement as part of the process of establishing a firm and cooperative working relationship with the Agency and the market surveillance authorities on REACH, an element for the Committee in the current Community strategy (see section 3 above and footnote 4). At the Lyon Plenary 2008 the WG had been mandated with the analysis on "Tensions and synergies between REACH and OSH 'Chemicals Directives". A comparative study was made between the requirements of REACH, Council Directive 89/391//EEC and 9 individual OSH Directives which directly or indirectly protect the health of workers at workplaces where chemical agents are or may be used. The analysis identified many complementary features between the 2 legislative regimes. The document also contains information that labour inspectorates would find useful to train inspectors on REACH. The draft had been shared with the European Chemicals Agency's Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement on the REACH Regulation. The document (Doc,2009_239 was published in 2008 and in 2009 this document was made available to SLIC in 22 language versions. The Working group continued its work on the subject of an (rapid) information exchange network on workplace chemical risk prevention and REACH-related issues. e.g. on enforcement strategies, crossborder and supply chain issues, good prevention and control practices in the workplace where they fall within the field of responsibility of the labour inspection services of the Committee. At its meeting on 1 April 2009, Working Group: CHEMEX received presentations on 2 IT-systems, SLIC-KSS and ICSMS. The Information and Communication System for Market Surveillance (ICSMS) is used in 12 Member States for information exchange on Single Market legislation e.g. Directives applying to Machinery, Lifts, Toy Safety, Pressure Equipment and so on. The Commission is currently considering a proposal to adopt ICSMS as the preferred IT-tool in Member States for information exchange on market surveillance under the Single Market. The Working Group continued its cooperation work with ECHA (Helsinki) on the Forum on other enforcement bodies and expert groups. The FORUM met in December 2009 to take a decision on ICSMS. Finally, the Working Group was mandated to evaluate and review the impact of the Committee's Framework for an EU REACH Regulation enforcement model for national labour inspectorates/ 8 Framework for an EU REACH Regulation enforcement model for national labour inspectorates Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors, ref.: doc.1307 (2008), December 2008 8
Machinery Working Group Machex continued its work on market surveillance, sharing experience on compliance and enforcement, and agreeing 'common positions' relating to issues identified at national level with the Machinery Directive 9 and on the use of machinery in the workplace. These included technical and administrative provisions for various types of machinery used in agricultural and forestry, metal working, electricity generation and construction. A substantial number of issues relate to the construction and working practices associated with equipment used for lifting persons and loads in the European Community. The Working Group met on 13 and 14 May 2009 with its new chairman, Mr Pedro Bráz (PT). Issues of enforcement concerning equipment subject to the Machinery Directive and the Use of Work Equipment Directive were discussed. The Working Group was mandated to take forward the conclusion of a study on cranes and lift trucks by establishing common good practices and criteria on how competent persons are trained and assessed. In 2009 an ad hoc group (PT, CY, UK) in cooperation with ACSH was created and charged with this work. Rapid exchange of knowledge The Committee makes use of the Commission's CIRCA extranet to provide a secure framework for sharing inspection-related problems and solutions amongst the 27 Member States and EFTA countries. IN 2009, the KSS Project Team implemented considerable changes to improve the way it used CIRCA for the Knowledge and Sharing between NLIs. In 2009 the KSS Project Team, led by Belgium inspectorate, finalized a leaflet Knowledge Sharing Site. This Leaflet explained in a straightforward manner what the SLIC-KSS site does giving practical examples of how it can be used. The leaflet is to be distributed within the Member States' National authorities and amongst their inspectors. In 2009 the Project team also produced the first edition of a Newsletter written for the national coordinators. It contains various articles: 'hints and tips' for correct operation of SLIC-KSS, the guidelines for exchanging 'identifiable data', the new leaflet and it also announced a second Workshop for national coordinators in Luxembourg on 1 and 2 December 2009 The project team consulted the Committee on examples of 'identifiable data' i.e. information for exchange on the SLIC-KSS network which may contain information about a particular company, product or 'problem found' during an inspection which other labour inspectorates need to know. Strategy The Working Group Strategy met in September 2009 to prepare and report to the Committee on the SLIC plan of work for 2010 to 2012 to allow for joint activities of other programmes e.g. the Community strategy, Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work (ACSH), EU-OSHA. WG: Strategy worked towards developing a definite plan for the Committee to consider at the Bilbao plenary on 6-7 May 2010, which could include progress on SLIC's activities plus potential next steps e.g. Campaign on risks from dangerous substances and the Committee's activity on the future work on accident incidence rates. The WG also worked on selecting topics, for instance: the structure and approach to future thematic days given the forthcoming change to the Committee's membership; 9 Directive 98/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 June 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to machinery (repealed by Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 17 May 2006 on machinery and amending Directive 95/16/EC (recast), OJ L 157, 9.6.2006, p. 24) 9
greater use of the NLI evaluation programme and National Annual Reports to answer questions of mutual importance and benefit e.g. how NLIs select their national priorities, especially at a time of reduced resources; what can be done to promote the business case for health and safety in the current economic climate; the evidence-base for our choices of work and their impact; ensure inspectors appreciate that their work contributes to EU-wide initiatives e.g. SLIC's campaign on dangerous substances. Finally the WG also reported on some of the activities planned by other bodies (e.g. ACSH, EU- OSHA) in the next 3-year period in order to raise awareness in our work and/or identify potential partners. Inspector Exchange Scheme Promoting exchanges for labour inspectors between national administrations and the setting up of training programmes for inspectors (Article 3.4) In 2008 the Committee had agreed improvements to the scheme in respect of its focus, criteria for eligibility and reporting; these were introduced in 2009. Foremost are exchanges that support the objectives of the SLIC resolution on the Commission strategy on safety and health at work (see footnote 3). In this regard, future exchanges will aim to promote at least one of the following activities: i) to facilitate cooperation between labour inspectorates; ii) to step up joint action with regards to specific sectors or risk; iii) to encourage training programmes on innovative approaches and good practices to achieving compliance. Important learning points arising from scheme will be disseminated via the SLIC-KSS information exchange network (see above). The 2009 Inspectorate Exchange Programme encouraged 22 exchange visits. These exchanges, typically one week in duration, offer a unique opportunity for individual inspectors to gain experience, knowledge and direct practical experience of the inspection practices and techniques of another Member State. PUBLICATIONS AND GUIDELINES Drawing up and publishing documents to facilitate the activities of labour inspectors (Article 3.5) A number of publications are mentioned in the main text. References to 4 specific documents published under the banner of Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors are repeated here: o o o Framework for an EU REACH Regulation enforcement model for national labour inspectorate (Doc.1307_2008) published in 22 EU languages SLIC-KSS Information Flyer - Labour Inspectors Network and Exchange System 22 language versions. Reducing the incidence rate of occupational accidents and diseases in line with the Community strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012 - "Role and activities of national labour inspectorates" Prague May 2009 o "Supervision of psychosocial risk assessments" - Stockholm (SE) November 2009 10
*********************************************************************** Further information, contact: Health, Safety and Hygiene at Work Unit Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities L-2920 Luxembourg Fax: (+352) 4301 31017 ************* 11
Extract from: Annex 1 Commission Decision of 12 July 1995 setting up a Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors (95/319/EC) Article 3 The Committee, in assisting the Commission, shall work towards the achievement of the following objectives: 1. common principles of labour inspection in the field of health and safety at work and developing methods of assessing the national systems of inspection in relation to those principals; 2. promoting improved knowledge and mutual understanding of the different national inspection systems and practices of labour inspection, the methods and legal frameworks for action; 3. developing exchanges between national labour inspection services of their experience in monitoring the enforcement of secondary Community law on health and safety at work, so as to ensure its consistent enforcement throughout the Community; 4. promoting exchanges for labour inspectors between national administrations and the setting up of training programmes for inspectors; 5. drawing up and publishing documents to facilitate the activities of labour inspectors; 6. developing a reliable and efficient system of rapid information exchange between labour inspectorates on all problems encountered in monitoring the enforcement of Community legislation in the field of health and safety at work and to assist in resolving any cross-border problems; 7. establishing active cooperation with labour inspectorates of third countries, so as to promote the work done by the Community on health and safety at work and to assist in resolving any cross-border problems; 8. studying the possible impact of other Community policies on labour inspection activities relating to health and safety at work and working conditions. 12
13 Annex 2
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COMMITTEE OF SENIOR LABOUR INSPECTORS - WORKING GROUPS (2009) Annex 3 Working Group Principal activity (in 2009) Meeting s Chemex Machex Enforcement Manual Handling of Loads 2008 Strategy Impact of the REACH Regulation on activities of labour inspectorates in occupational health and safety Market surveillance, information exchange and problem-solving on compliance with the Machinery Directive Review the new Community strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work in terms of SLIC's future priorities; Develop SLIC's rapid information exchange network for inspectors 10 Design and delivery of a European inspection and communication campaign on manual handling of loads in 2008 Resolution on SLIC's contribution to the Community strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work, and Plan of Work Risks from Chemicals Design and delivery of a European inspection and communication campaign on risks from chemicals Membership 2 UK Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia, Sweden, UK 1 Sweden 27 Member States + Norway, Switzerland 2 Denmark 27 Member States + Norway, Iceland 3 Poland Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, Poland 1 UK Austria, Italy, UK, Poland, Sweden, Portugal, Germany, Denmark 2 Portugal Belgium, France, Greeece, Ireland, Slovakia, UK 10 Taken forward by Belgian project leader and a project team comprising Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Netherlands, and UK 16