EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG Employment Health and Safety Minutes (Doc.688_17-EN) 27 th Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work Luxembourg, 30 th November2016 Adopted 31/05/2017 Date: 30 th November 2016 Venue: Luxembourg LUX CONGRÈS, Salle E Chair Mr Stefan OLSSON Director EMPL/B Spokespersons: Mr Kris De Meester Mr Josef Kšiňan Mr Hugh Robertson (EIG, Belgium) (GIG, Slovak Republic) (WIG, UK) 1. FORMALITIES Mr OLSSON welcomed the Committee to its 27 th plenary meeting and gave the floor to Mr CAMMAROTA to spend a few words on one of the most "historical" members of the Committee, Mrs Raili PERIMÄKI, WIG Finnish representative, who would retire in early 2017 and who was therefore attending her last plenary. Mr Cammarota stressed Mrs Perimäki commitment to the Committee, which went back as far as 1998. She contributed to the activity of many Working Parties of the Committee, such as Stress, Violence at work, MSDs, Training and education and Strategy. She also participated in all EU-US Conferences since 1998. On behalf of the Committee and the Commission, Mr Cammarota expressed his heartfelt appreciation and wished Mrs Perimäki all the very best for her new life. Commission européenne/europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111 Office: EUFO 2193 - Tel. direct line +352 430133362
1.1. Adoption of the draft agenda (doc.1819/16) The Agenda was adopted. 1.2. Approval of the minutes of the twenty sixth plenary meeting (doc. 1820/16) The draft Minutes of the 26 th plenary meeting were adopted. 2. POINTS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION Before passing to the points 2.1 and 2.2 below, Mr OLSSON addressed the participants on on-going Commission s Social Pillar initiative. He recalled that the development of the Social Pillar was continuing apace. The work had included intensive contacts with all relevant stakeholders and over 100 seminars held to animate the debate. An issue clearly identified in the process was the need to upgrade workforce skills in order to ensure recovery from economic downturn. If not properly dealt with, this issue could seriously damage competitiveness and consequently job creation. Another issue of concern was the exclusion of many workers operating neither on traditional forms of contract nor as selfemployed from the normal safety nets as regards social security protection and labour rights. The question of how to protect them needed to be addressed. The Commission aimed at finalising work on the Social Pillar by March 2017. 2.1. Ex-post evaluation and future OSH Communication Regarding the ex-post evaluation of the OSH acquis and the future OSH Communication, Mr OLSSON said that the inter-service work on the planned Commission Communication and Staff Working Document had been completed and that the target for concluding the political discussions and approval was 21 st December. The proposals sent to the political level could be summarised in four areas: continuing the work on CMD and carcinogens; looking at, and dealing with, gaps in implementation of the acquis, including working with governments, SLIC, EU-OSHA and the social partners via the ACSH to achieve better enforcement; working on the so-called new risks such as stress, MSDs and ageing, which - though covered by the Framework Directive - could be tackled through improved awareness raising and guidance. These issues were generally not legislated for in the Member States and the Commission would not intend to correct that through binding measures; looking at administrative burdens so as to simplify processes and procedures while avoiding, through simplification, the creation of new problems. The evaluation project had supported a conclusion that the Directives remained relevant and that there should be no reduction in levels of protection. Some Directives contained outdated provisions and needed to be technically updated, without adding to administrative burdens. The Signs Directive is one such example. The ACSH would need to address these matters. Mr OLSSON concluded that meetings of the WPs "Actions arising from the evaluation of the OSH acquis" and "Strategy" would be convened in 2017, first semester, to follow up on the Communication. 2
2.2. Second wave revision of CMD Mr OLSSON highlighted the progress on carcinogens and informed the Committee that the EP had just reported on the proposal already agreed by the EPSCO for a first wave of carcinogens. He reported also on the proposal just agreed by the Commission for a second wave, details of which were provided by Ms GRODZKI (EMPL/B3). Mr OLSSON concluded that the Commission would not, for the time being, take the following substances forward: Diesel Engine Exhaust Emission; Beryllium and its inorganic compounds; Hexachlorobenzene; and Rubber Process generated dust and fumes. Further "waves" of substances would follow in due course. Mr OLSSON also reminded that the interface between OSH and REACH was under serious examination, including why different limit values were emerging for substances under the two codes. A scientific debate and cross-industry consultations were in progress with a view to resolving issues in 2017. In response to Mr Olsson's presentation, the GIG broadly supported the ideas as regards better enforcement, looking at new risks and advancing work on carcinogens. The EIG emphasised that the ACSH should be kept informed in good time of pending developments and also cautioned about the need to check the validity of data. The WIG welcomed the information provided but challenged the idea that the EU had no role as regards legislating where the Member States were not regulating. While not in opposition to reducing administrative burdens, consideration must be given also to how to improve the acquis given the levels of injury and ill-health which persist. The WIG expressed disappointment that so few carcinogens were included in the second wave and called for a timetable as regards future initiatives. 3. DECISIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 3.1. Adoption of the ACSH Work programme 2017 Mr. CAMMAROTA presented the Work Programme 2017 highlighting that this work programme reflected priorities from the overall action plan for the period 2015-2020 adopted by the Committee in May 2015 following the adoption of the EU OSH Strategic framework 2014-2020. The Committee adopted the ACSH Work Programme 2017 (Annex 1, Doc. 794-03- 16) subject to modifications as regards the creation of a Working party "Enforcement of OSH legislation" in the light of deferral of a decision on the new mandate (see point 3.3.2), and possible updating in 2017 in the light of any developments resulting from the Communication on the evaluation of the acquis. 3.2. Adoption of opinions 3.2.1. Draft opinion prepared by the WP EU Strategic Framework, National Strategies and ACSH Work Programme Mr SCHÄFER (Chair of the WP) presented the draft opinion and stressed that the opinion commented on, and drew conclusions from, the 3 rd ACSH Workshop on national OSH strategies which was held in Luxembourg on 21-22 September 2016. In particular, the opinion called on all actors to further promote the establishment and/or revision of national OSH strategies in accordance with the priorities of the EU OSH Strategic 3
Framework 2014-2020. It was also recommended that the Commission should arrange for further exchange of good practices between Member States and the social partners, inter alia in the framework of a possible 4 th ACSH Workshop on national strategies to be held in 2018. The Committee adopted the opinion (Annex 2, doc.1808/16) subject to an amendment to make reference to micro-enterprises in the context of Improving OSH in small and medium sized enterprises and minor editorial changes. 3.3. New mandates 3.3.1. WP Chemicals at the Workplace The Committee adopted the mandate 2017-2020 for the WP "Chemicals at the Workplace" (Annex 3, doc. 1818/16) with an amendment to the wording in brackets in paragraph 6 and subject to clarification as regards the rotation of roles in the bureau. 3.3.2. WP Enforcement of OSH legislation An agreement on the text of the mandate failed to be reached during the preparatory meeting on the eve of the plenary. Consequently the Committee decided to defer the adoption of the mandate. From a procedural point of view, it was agreed that a new text would be circulated by the GIG to trigger discussion in the Bureau, with a view to adopting the mandate in the first half of 2017. 4.2. WPs to be disbanded 3.4.1. WP EMF The Committee decided to disband the WP "EMF", as it had fulfilled its mandate. 4. EXECUTION OF THE WORK PROGRAMME 4.1. Overview of WPs' activity The document, reflecting the activity of the WPs during the second semester 2016, was presented by the Secretariat (Mr CAMMAROTA). The Secretariat also took the opportunity to remind the Committee that all adopted minutes of WP meetings as well as the meeting schedule for 2017 and the list of active WPs within the Committee were available on CIRCABC (Annex 4, Doc. 817/16). 4.2. International cooperation 4.2.1. EU/China cooperation on OSH Mr HEPPLESTON (EMPL/B3) informed that the 7 th EU-China dialogue on Work Safety (Beijing, 29 September 2016) focused on "Technology, innovation and safety guarantee". It looked at the EU and Chinese perspectives. The dialogue was a great success as it clearly set out the scene for future cooperation. 5. BILBAO AGENCY 4
Dr Christa SEDLATSCHEK, Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), provided information on the most recent activities of the Agency (see PowerPoints presentation, Annex 5). Mr Xabier IRASTORZA (EU-OSHA) presented and gave an in-depth update of the ESENER Project (see PowerPoints presentation, Annex 6). 6. EUROFOUND Ms Erika MEZGER, Deputy Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, provided extensive information on the most recent activities of the Foundation (see PowerPoint presentation, Annex 7). 7. INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION The Commission (Mrs GREVFORS-ERNOULT, Acting HoU EMPL/B3) briefly presented the document Information from the Commission, which provided an overview and an update of the major OSH files dealt with by EMPL/B3 and other Commission services in the second semester 2016. The Commission indicated that the update on social dialogue activities was also to be found in this document (Annex 8, Doc. 866-01/16). The Commission (Mr CAMMAROTA) also informed the Committee on the activities of the SLIC (information also included in doc. 821-01/15). 8. INFORMATION FROM THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COUNCIL PRESIDENCY Government representatives from the Slovak Republic (Mr KŠIŇAN) and Malta (Mr MERCIECA) highlighted the major events during the respective Presidencies (see Annex 8 & 10). 9. CHAIRMAN'S CONCLUSIONS Mr OLSSON thanked all those concerned for the organisation of the meeting and closed the meeting announcing the dates of the 28 th plenary meeting of the ACSH (30 th - 31 st May 2017). 5