On Thursday 14 September, MEPs debated the working conditions of firefighters in the EU, after a summer marked by a series of disasters.
Led by the chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, Dragoș Pîslaru, they asked the Commission, in an oral question, to look into the lack of a statute for volunteer firefighters, the difficulty for professional firefighters of getting paid overtime and taking their statutory rest periods. They called on the Commission to review the working time directive to take better account of the situation of firefighters.
They also alerted the Commission to the need to classify the profession of firefighter as carcinogenic and to recognise occupational illnesses linked to sporadic exposure of firefighters to dangerous substances.
Firefighters are “300% more likely to develop cancer” than the rest of the population, said Dragoș Pîslaru.
At a time when professional fire brigade units are becoming ever smaller, MEPs such as Anne Sander (EPP, French) and Marc Botenga (The Left, Belgian) have asked the Commission to look into the recruitment of fire brigades, with the French MEP also calling on it to draw up a “statute for European volunteers and rescuers” to strengthen civil protection in the EU.
Greece’s Kostas Arvanitis (The Left) said that there are currently “4,000 firefighter vacancies” in the country, which has recently been hit by huge fires and violent floods.
“The climate crisis is only getting worse, we need a permanent status for firefighters, better incomes and to build on the directive on minimum wages”, he said.
For her part, Commissioner Elisa Ferreira has assured us that the EU is improving health and safety at work and the prevention of occupational risks, notably with the recent directive on asbestos. She also called on Member States to use European funds to protect firefighters.
Link to oral question: https://aeur.eu/f/8jw (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)