Brussels, 22/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs adopted by 42 votes to two the report by Danish Socialist Helle Thorning-Schmidt concerning the minimum health and safety requirements regarding the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (vibration). The report (codecision, second reading) will be examined on Tuesday by the European Parliament plenary sitting).
The parliamentary committee proposes that the plenary amend the common position adopted by the Council on 25 June (see EUROPE of 30 June 2001) on the European Commission's proposal of directive. Thus, as far as vibration to the whole of the body is concerned, it requests that: 1) the daily exposure limit value standardised to an eight-hour reference period should be fixed at 0.7 m/s2 (as opposed to 1.15 m/s2 in the common position) or, according to the choice made by the Member State, to a vibration dose value of 13.7 m/s 1.75 (as opposed to 21 m/s 1.75); 2) the daily exposure value standardised for an eight-hour reference period triggering off the action should be fixed at 0.5 m/s2 (as opposed to 0.6 m/s2) or, according to the Member State's decision, to a dose value of vibration of 8.5 m/s 1.75 (against 11 m/s 1.75).
Furthermore, the Committee is of the opinion that the maximum transitional period for application of these limit values envisaged by the Council (6 years) is too long and should be reduced to 5 years, which should be enough to allow companies to replace tools and material. As far as the equipment used in the agricultural and forestry sectors is concerned, the Member States can extend this maximum transitional period by two years (while the common position provides for three years). Finally, the committee considers that the final decision for granting exemptions should be up to the Member States, after consultation with social partners.
We recall that the Commission presented, on 23 December 1992, a proposal of directive establishing minimum safety and health requirements with regards worker exposure to risks due to physical agents such as mechanical vibration, noise, electro-magnetic fields and waves and optical radiation. The common position on which the EP is to give its opinion in second reading only concerns mechanical vibration, from which 24% of Union workers suffer. Mechanical vibrations occur in particular in the following groups of occupations: unskilled employees in the mining, building, manufacturing and transport industries; workers it the extraction industry and the building trades; and drivers and operators of mobile equipment. The proposal of directive sets action and limit values for two types of vibration: hand-arm vibration and whole-body vibration. The European Parliament finalised its position in first reading during its sitting of 20 April 1994.