Health and safety of workers at work: simplifying and rationalising the reports on practical implementation
PURPOSE: to simplify national reporting on the practical implementation of health and safety provisions in the work place.
CONTENT: The preparation by the Member States of practical implementation reports as a basis for the Commission’s periodical reports on the implementation of the Community rules on the safety and health of workers, is provided for by Council Directive 89/391/EEC, its individual Directives and by Council Directives 83/477/EEC, 91/383/EEC, 92/29/EEC, and 94/33/EC.
These directives required the preparation of numerous individual reports at varying intervals, which put a strain on both national and EU administrations, the effect of which was to give an unclear picture of health and safety provisions.
This Directive aims to simplify the exercise by requiring Member States to submit to the Commission, every five years, a single report on the practical implementation of the Directive and its individual Directives.
The text is the result of a compromise agreed between the European Parliament and the Council, with the aim of reaching an agreement at 1st reading. The main points are as follows:
- Member States should submit single reports every 5 years. The first report should, exceptionally, cover a longer period. The reports on the implementation of Directive 89/391/EEC and its individual Directives should assess the various points related to the practical implementation of the different Directives and, where appropriate and available, provide data disaggregated by gender;
-there will be a single practical implementation report which will include a general part applicable to all the directives and specific chapters relating to the aspects particular to each directive. The provisions, and particularly the inclusion of a new Article 17a in Directive 89/391/EEC, will furthermore allow the inclusion in this implementation report exercise of the individual Directives within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC that do not require reports, namely: Directives 2000/54/EC and 2004/37/EC and any future individual directives;
- the Commission shall draw up a questionnaire specifying the content of the report. The structure of the report as defined by the Commission, together with the questionnaire, should be submitted to the Member States at least six months before the end of the period covered and the report should be transmitted to the Commission within 12 months of the end of the five-year period it covers;
- the reports will include relevant information on the preventive efforts deployed in the Member States so as to allow the Commission, taking into account any relevant findings of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, adequately to assess how the legislation works in practice;
- using these reports as a basis, the Commission shall evaluate the implementation of the Directives concerned in terms of their relevance, of research and of new scientific knowledge in the various fields in question;
- the Commission shall inform Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work of the results of its evaluation based on the single reports within 36 months of the end of the five-year period.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 27/06/2007.
DATE OF TRANSPOSITION: 31/12/2012.