KANBrief 2/12
In 2011, in response to an initiative by the employers’ liaison office at the KAN Secretariat, the Working Party “Standardization” was set up at the European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Health and Safety at Work (ACSH). A special committee therefore now exists at European level in which the state, employees and employers discuss issues of standardization policy.
Standardization has an important function in occupational safety and health, namely that of supporting the essential health and safety requirements of EU directives. The newly created standardization working party is intended to strengthen the voice of the social partners and government representatives in the area of standardization policy. It maintains contact with the European standards bodies and is supported by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
The working party’s mandate was adopted unanimously at the plenary session of the Advisory Committee held in Luxembourg on 2 December 2010. Its core tasks concern the assessment of:
• Standards activity relevant to OSH
• Standardization mandates issued by the European Commission that are relevant to OSH
• The role of standards in the enforcement of OSH regulations
It is also intended to encourage co-operation and the sharing of information with the European standards organizations, CEN and CENELEC. One important contact for example is SABOSH, the CEN Strategic Advisory Body for Occupational Health and Safety.
The working party has a tripartite structure, comprising four delegates each from the Member States, the employers and the employees; the European Commission is also represented by two delegates. The working party meets several times a year. The functions of the chairperson, vice-chairperson and rapporteur are assumed in regular rotation by the three stakeholders represented in the group. The German member of the working party is the head of the employers’ liaison office at the KAN Secretariat.
Current key activities
At its constituent meeting on 21 September 2011, the working party defined the foci of its future activity. The Enterprise and Industry Directorate- General presented its own role in the standardization process and also the draft of the Standardisation Regulation. The employers’ delegates requested that the social partners be named explicitly in the regulation as stakeholders in standardization. The trade union delegates proposed that the working party specifically address standards in which safety-related requirements in directives are covered inadequately or not at all.
The focus of the subsequent meetings lay upon the presentation of SABOHS and the problems presented by new standardization products such as CWAs for occupational safety and health (no consensus, no public enquiry, etc.). The working party also considered the issue of the standardization of services in depth.
The use of standards to address issues which under Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are the preserve of the individual Member States or the collective bargaining partners was the subject of critical discussion. Sweden cited EN 16082, Airport and aviation security services, as an example. This standard requires among other things that provisions for continued payment of wages in the event of illness, procedures following an occupational accident, and holiday entitlement be included in employment contracts. Since these and other aspects of the standard are governed by binding provisions in the Swedish OSH legislation, the Swedish version of the standard contains national deviations from the European standard (A-deviations).
The working party will also address in detail the involvement of the social partners in standardization activity. In Germany, KAN has proved to be an effective institution for bringing together all the stakeholders concerned. The experience gained by the other countries represented in the working party in the involvement of the social partners in the standardization process was the subject of the most recent meeting, which was held on 14 June 2012.
The meetings held to date have laid the foundation for sustained activity by the working party in the future. The close contact with SABOSH in particular provides an opportunity for OSHrelated standardization topics and issues to be presented to the European Commission.
Eckhard Metze
metze@kan.de