European Parliament adopts Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work 2007-2012

Strasbourg, 15 January. The plenary of the European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report by Glenis WILLMOTT (PES, UK) in response to the Commission's communication on the Community strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work. The resolution was adopted by 598 votes for, 20 against and 23 abstentions.

It recalls that around 167 000 people died in 2006 as a result of a work accidents or a work-related disease and that each year some 300 000 workers suffer permanent disability. Parliament welcomes the Commission's target for an average reduction of 25% in workplace accidents across the EU but regrets the silence on targets for the reduction of occupational diseases. It calls its attention to the importance to have clear and well-targeted measures together with a timetable and financial commitments which can then be evaluated and assessed. In the absence of such measures, timetable and commitment, Parliament calls on the Commission to report to Parliament on progress at the half-way stage of its 2007-2012 strategy.

The resolution stresses that the rehabilitation and reintegration of workers after ill health or an accident at work is vital, it notes the scientifically proven link between growing stress at the workplace and the diseases it gives rise to, it recognises that prevention is of central importance.

The Parliament also calls on the Commission to encourage good employment policies and decent work conditions and to encourage employers to promote healthy lifestyles at the workplace through occupational health promotion campaigns, enforcement of smoking bans at the workplace and schemes to support smoking employees to quit smoking and to ensure responsibility and policy coherence with other areas, especially public health.

The resolution calls for more attention to the causes underlying the development of mental illnesses and to mental health, addiction and psychological hazards at the workplace, such as stress, harassment and mobbing, as well as violence and further calls for greater emphasis to be placed on employer policies for the promotion of good physical and mental health.

The Parliament stresses the importance of a continuous dialogue between all interested parties including the public authorities, employers, employees, their representatives and civil society and the necessity to cooperate with international organisations such as the WHO, WTO and ILO.

Willmott has been recognised for bringing increased attention to occupational illnesses, which don't get enough attention when compared to workplace injuries. “Occupational diseases are not stressed enough,” said Czech MEP Jiří Maštálka, who criticised the earlier draft of the strategy for focusing on accidents, which he said were “only part of the problem.” He added, “So far, only 5% of cancer cases are classified as working diseases. We need to get to grips with the number of occupational cancers so that we can begin to reduce them.”

Commissioner Stavros Dimos reinforced the idea that there needs to be a reduction in the number of work-related accidents in the EU, saying that improvements need to be at an industrial, political and institutional level. He promised that the Commission will discuss individual measures.

Legislative Observatory with relevant documents: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=2&procnum=INI/2007/2146

Session documents: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sce/server/internet/amend_motions_texts/sce_amend_motions_texts_main_01.jsp?amend_text_type=R

Background information

The new strategy builds upon the evaluation of the previous Community strategy on health and safety at work 2002-2006 and its main objective is to reduce the incidence rate of accidents at work (by 25%) and occupational illnesses.

It should be noted that although mental health is strongly emphasised in the Strategy, alcohol in the workplace and the alcohol strategy are not mentioned. However, the communication acknowledges the emergence of new risk factors, such as addictions and considers that these changes mean that a better understanding of the problem must be acquired by conducting specialized research in order to identify effective prevention measures. The research agenda will also be used to identify new risks. Among others, the research priorities include psychological issues and exposure to chemicals.

Proposal from the Commission on a Community strategy (2007-2012) on health and safety at work.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2007/com2007_0062en01.pdf

Council resolution on a new Community strategy on health and safety at work (2007-2012)

http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/07/st10/st10244.en07.pdf