KANBrief 4/09

Involvement of the OSH lobby in standardization activity: what are the stakeholders‘ expectations?

The KAN colloquium provided OSH stakeholders with the opportunity to present their expectations of current and future standardization activity and the work of KAN.

Norbert Breutmann, Confederation of German Employers‘ Associations (BDA)
In future, it will be necessary to consider how KAN‘s tasks can be adapted to the changes taking place in the global economy. One example of this concerns how the German Consensus Statement will continue to develop in consideration of international standardization activity. The form taken by these framework conditions is crucial to the participation of employers in KAN‘s work, and also to their participation in the standardization process. Occupational safety and health is a key aspect of the employers‘ involvement, since they take their responsibility for their employees seriously. At the same time however, as signifi cant players on the market, employers and entrepreneurs have an interest in avoiding further pressures and obstacles resulting, directly or indirectly, from misdirected activities in any part of standardization.

In the view of the BDA, it is unacceptable for individual countries to strike out on their own (for example by use of the safeguard clause procedure) or for exaggerated OSH demands to be introduced into the standardization process, where the result is detrimental to the competitiveness of German industry. In the BDA‘s view, an important task of KAN is to counter further over-regulation in the area of occupational safety and health and thereby to contribute to the desperately needed reduction in bureaucracy in Germany.

It is likewise unacceptable for the provisions of standards to interfere with arrangements concerning the health and safety of workers at work by addressing the employer‘s responsibility, the rights and duties of employees, or the organization of occupational safety and health. These aspects are governed comprehensively and conclusively by statutory regulations.

The involvement of employers in the standardization process, in their capacity as operators or users of standardized products or services, has tended in the past to be lower than that of manufacturing industry; this can realistically be expected to remain the case, with the exception of certain areas such as ergonomics. It will therefore become increasingly important for KAN to maintain a sense of proportion in the fulfi lment of its tasks, and to consider both the effects upon companies‘ economic effi ciency, and straightforward, trouble-free and safe operation.

Marina Schröder, Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB)
As is currently the case, the key requirements for what might reasonably be described as serious participation in standardization activity will be support, both financial and institutional, for employees and trade unions. The need for the fi nal standards to be purchased continues to be an issue. This is acceptable where standards are used by the private sector as a means for communication and rationalization. It is not acceptable however for standards which have been developed in response to a public mandate and have been funded publicly.

This distinction should be applied not only to access to the standards documents, but also to access to the standards committees. The affirmation that standards committees are open to all stakeholders is well-intentioned. With their fees, however, the standards institutes have created high barriers to entry. The costs of working time and travel expenses must also be met. If employees are to represent their public interest in standardization and are to contribute their expertise to it, these expenses must be paid from the public purse.

KAN is an instrument through which employees are involved at least indirectly in standardization work. It would be advantageous were institutions like KAN to exist in other European countries, and were the individual Member States to assure the effective involvement of the social partners, particularly the trade unions, in standardization work.

When the actual decisions concerning standardization are taken at European level, however, an institution such as KAN is constrained by its national character. Protection for minorities, which prevent a stakeholder from being outvoted on a standards committee, exists at DIN, but not at CEN. The trade unions call for a corresponding arrangement to be created for the European voting process, in order to prevent public concerns in harmonized standards from being overruled by private-sector interests. Where occupational safety and health is addressed in standards, those ultimately affected, namely the employees, should be granted and guaranteed preferential treatment in their opportunities for co-determination at European level.

Michael Koll, Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
With the creation of KAN in 1994, Germany laid the foundation for broad-based participation in standardization activity and for effi cient and effective representation of a common OSH position. Through its membership of the Committee for technical work equipment and consumer products (AtAV), KAN advises the German government on issues of product safety. This function has been enshrined since 2004 in the German Equipment and Product Safety Act (GPSG), and – together with the New Approach at European level – constitutes a further interface between statutory safety provisions, standards, and OSH requirements. The fact that the same products (“migration products“) are increasingly being used in both the trade and private sectors raises the issue of how the safety aspects of such products might be brought into KAN‘s scope of activity.

The function of market surveillance is at least as important as that of the statutory framework. This is the point addressed by the active co-operation between KAN and the German regional governments, which was stepped up in 2003 in numerous product areas through a co-operation agreement between them. The regional governments are represented in this context by LASI, the Commission of the German regional governments for occupational safety and safety engineering.

Together with the other OSH stakeholders, government bodies use KAN as a forum for the dissemination of information and for discussion. KAN has established itself as an important partner in the interaction between the German national and regional authorities in cases where a formal objection is launched against a harmonized standard.

With increasing globalization of the markets, standardization has inevitably become more international in nature. This in turn presents new challenges to the involvement of the occupational safety and health lobby. The task now facing the OSH lobby is that of developing solutions jointly and carrying them through: solutions which will assure its involvement in the standardization process at international level, and concentrated and effective representation of OSH interests. Precisely this is an important task that will be faced increasingly by KAN in the future.

Dr. Walter Eichendorf, German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV)
DIN and the German accident insurance institutions have co-operated continually and effectively for many years. At present, some 450 experts from the accident insurance institutions are active at German, European and international level in the creation of a body of standards in which a high standard of safety is enshrined.

We shall continue in the future to exert our influence upon standardization activity by the committed and forward-thinking involvement of our experts, and shall extend this involvement as needed. Notwithstanding the rapid pace of technical progress, standards governing the properties of technical products must be developed in step with up-to-date good safety practice. The involvement of the accident insurance institutions in this area will not therefore decrease in the future.

However, involvement in standardization work does not end with the work on standards committees. Modern information technology opens up new opportunities for the creation of networks. Networked expertise is available globally, and can contribute to the swift optimization of processes, solutions and products. A basis for such networking is provided by EUROSHNET, which was set up at the initiative of KAN some years ago and which permits the exchange of expertise between experts across international borders in virtually all areas of technical product safety and standardization.

At the same time, standardization reaches its limits where decisions regarding social policy are required which cannot be taken purely on the basis of the technical circumstances. In such cases, either the legislator or, within the scope of the statutory accident insurance system, the latter‘s autonomous administration, has the task of setting the criteria for abstract values such as the health and safety of employees. For this reason, standardization in the realm of the health and safety of workers at work is, with certain exceptions, not desired, and is rejected by the accident insurance institutions.