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Recently, the European Commission published a report on the implementation of the EU directive on pregnant workers. In 1992 the EU adopted a directive 'on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding' (92/85/EC). This was based on Article 118a of the EEC Treaty and had to be implemented in the Member States within two years. The directive was designed to protect this group whose health and safety was perceived to be facing particular threats in the workplace, which could affect their own health, as well as the health of the unborn or newly born child.
A number of problems came to light, particularly with receipt of information from Member States which led to the institution of infringement proceedings against some of them. They were required, under Article 14(4) of the directive, to submit to the Commission, within four years of its adoption, a report on its implementation, indicating the views of representatives of both sides of industry. In 1996, the Commission issued a questionnaire to all Member States requesting this information. The Greek, Luxembourgeois and Dutch authorities did not return fully completed copies, and the views of the social partners were specifically noted only in the replies from Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal. The Commission, therefore, called for the report.
It is generally satisfied with implementation, but identifies a number of areas in which Member States' legislation seems to fall short of the directive's requirements. In Austria, trainee nurses are not covered by the national legislation and student dentists and probationary teachers are only partly covered; in Greece, the armed forces, the police and domestic servants fall outside the scope of national implementing legislation; and in Gibraltar (which the U.K. is responsible for), the relevant regulations only cover women whose expected date of childbirth is after 5 May 1996, 18 months after that stipulated in the directive. Article 5 of the Directive requires employers to adjust working conditions or working hours in order to avoid any identified risk. If this is not possible, the worker concerned must be moved to another job, or, finally, granted leave. The report finds the French and Spanish laws fall short as they do not make provision for the possibility of leave if this is the only way of protecting the mother and unborn child. However France is among the countries to go beyond the directive in its legislation on night work by banning pregnant women from it altogether.
In addition, the Commission wants to rethink a number of elements of the directive in order to reduce discrepancies between countries and to improve equality of opportunity. For instance in Sweden and Ireland the protected period for recent mothers is 14 weeks, whereas in Spain women are assumed to breastfeed for nine months. Article 8 of the directive states that the workers covered must be entitled to a continuous period of at least 14 weeks of maternity leave. Member States' provisions range from 14 weeks in the UK to 28 weeks in Denmark.In general the report argues that the directive has had a significant impact in improving the position of pregnant women in employment, although the level of improvement differs from country to country, depending on the legislation previously in place. The three areas that it is most concerned about are definitions of 'a worker who has given birth' and 'a worker who is breastfeeding', the length of maternity leave granted and the levels of compensation afforded and qualifying criteria for these. The aim is to reach a framework which affords sufficiently similar standards of protection to women in different Member States and employment situations.
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The report can be found on the Internet at : |
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equ_opp/news/pregnant_en.htm |
The european commission has amended two past directives on the content of baby foods. It adopted a measure in 1989 which allowed it to change individual directives on such products if the Member States' Standing Committee for Food agreed. They concerned infant formulae and cereal-based and other baby foods.
Certain pesticides will now be banned from farm products intended for baby foods and, in future, baby foods will not be allowed to contain more than 0.01 milligrammes (mg) per kilogramme (kg) of pesticide residues. At the end of 1997 the Scientific Committee for Food revised its earlier opinion that a limit value of 0.04 mg/kg gave no cause for concern and recommended a cautious approach. This proposal from the Commission brings the standards up to those in the Member States having strict legislation already on this matter (Austria, Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg). Around 40% of the products on the European market meet the proposed limit value already but trade in products which do not comply with the directives will not be banned definitively until 1 July 2002. The Commission says that this is to allow manufacturers to modify their production methods and materials.
The European Trade Union Confederation has published three new reports in its 'Observatory on the Application of European Directives' series. Stress, Well-Being and the Framework Directive: The Dutch Experience by Jan Popma examines how stress, mental load and quality of work are covered in Dutch health and safety legislation (In English, price €30). Carcinogens in the Working Environment by Ulrike Westphal looks at German legislation to give effect to the EU directive on this subject and how Germany is trying to replace carcinogens with safer products (In English and German, price €20). Working with VDUs deals with experience in both Sweden and Germany in implementing EU laws on visual display units (In English, price €15).
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All 3 reports are available from the European Trade Union Technical Bureau for Health and Safety |
Fax: 00-32-2-224-0561 |
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