Labour Foundation. What is a health and safety catalogue?

Transcription

1 Labour Foundation What is a health and safety catalogue?

2 What is a health and safety catalogue? Published by: Stichting van de Arbeid (Labour Foundation) June 2007

3 About this publication Founded in 1945, the Labour Foundation [Stichting van de Arbeid] is a private national consultative body incorporating Dutch employers federations and trade union confederations. Today its members are the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers [Vereniging VNO-NCW, VNO-NCW], the Royal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Netherlands [Koninklijke Vereniging MKB-Nederland, MKB], the Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture [Federatie Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie Nederland, LTO], the Federation of Trade Unions [Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, FNV], the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions in the Netherlands [Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond, CNV], and the Trade Union Federation for Intermediate and Higher Employees [Vakcentrale voor Middengroepen en Hoger Personeel, MHP]. Published by: Stichting van de Arbeid (Labour Foundation) Bezuidenhoutseweg 60 P.O. Box NL-2509 LK THE HAGUE T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E info@stvda.nl Design and printing: Huisdrukkerij SER 2007, Stichting van de Arbeid No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from the Labour Foundation.

4 Contents Foreword 5 Introduction 7 Section 1. What is a Health and Safety Catalogue? A closer look at the Health and Safety Catalogue The content of the Health and Safety Catalogue Sources for the Health and Safety Catalogue content The parties of the Health and Safety Catalogue The temporary nature of a Health and Safety Catalogue The status of the Health and Safety Catalogue Health and Safety Catalogue versus RI&E Health and Safety Catalogue and collective agreements 22 Brief summary of Labour Foundation s recommendations for drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue 23 Section 2. What steps must be taken to develop a Health and Safety Catalogue? 25 Step 1: The decision in principle 25 Step 2: Discussing the Health and Safety Catalogue 26 Step 3: Assessment by the Labour Inspectorate 27 Step 4: Communication with the sector 29 Annexes: 1 New terms in the working conditions act 31 2 CBA address list 33 3 CBA correspondence address 34 4 List of relevant websites 35 3

5 Risk: welding fumes (photo: Peter Hilz/Hollandse Hoogte)

6 Foreword The Health and Safety Catalogue [arbocatalogus] is a new phenomenon in the Netherlands. Dutch legislators have decided to give employers and employees at sector level a significant degree of responsibility for health and safety policy. Centralised policy rules and regulations will give way to sector-specific customisation. The standards stipulated in the Dutch Working Conditions Act [Arbeidsomstandighedenwet] will continue to serve as a guideline, but employers associations and trade unions the social partners may agree on the way in which these standards are to be met in their sector. The employers federations and trade union confederations represented in the Labour Foundation have decided to create a Health and Safety Catalogue Guidance Committee [Commissie Begeleiding Arbocatalogi, CBA]. Their purpose in doing so is not to interfere with the sectors and their responsibility, but to facilitate the process of developing the catalogues as much as possible and desirable. This document, which describes the new phenomenon, is an important part of the new committee s initial work. We hope that it will help employers and employees at sector level get started on the job ahead of them. Robin Linschoten Chairman, Health and Safety Catalogue Guidance Committee 5

7 Risk: noise, vibrations (photo: Bert Verhoeff / Hollandse Hoogte)

8 Introduction This booklet is about the Dutch Health and Safety Catalogue [Arbocatalogus], which represents a brand-new approach to occupational health and safety in the Netherlands. The Labour Foundation is publishing this booklet for two reasons. First of all, it wishes to clarify precisely what is meant by a Health and Safety Catalogue. Secondly, it wishes to give employer and employee representatives at sector and company level a set of guidelines for drawing up their health and safety catalogue. In the private domain, employers and employees will determine procedures for meeting the target requirements. They can do so at sector level or nationally, based on agreement between the social partners. These procedures will be documented in a Health and Safety Catalogue, which will describe means and methods that have been approved by employers and employees and from which a choice can be made to meet target requirements. This passage is taken from the Summary of the Social and Economic Council s Advisory Report Evaluatie Arbowet 1998 (Evaluation of the 1998 Working Conditions Act), published in June That report provided the basis for the amendments to the Working Conditions Act introduced on 1 January The Health and Safety Catalogue is one of the key changes in those amendments. The passage quoted above already provides a considerable amount of information about the Health and Safety Catalogue. It refers to the private domain and to target requirements. It mentions agreement between the social partners at sector or national level. It also refers to approved means and methods to meet target requirements, to mention just a few examples. 7

9 Introduction The amendments give the social partners a large measure of responsibility, namely the responsibility to determine the form and content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. That is why the Labour Foundation has set up a special committee to assist the social partners in this task: the Health and Safety Catalogue Guidance Committee [Commissie Begeleiding Arbocatalogi, CBA]. 1 It is also why the Foundation has set up a special project on this subject. The project is divided into parts. 1) the employers federations and trade union confederations have each set up their own subsidiary projects to inform and assist their members; 2) the federations and confederations have joined forces at national level in a number of activities, for example this publication; 3) the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has developed a scheme (in consultation with the Labour Foundation) that offers sectors financial support in drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue. The Labour Foundation website ( reports regularly on the project and on the overall progress made in introducing the Health and Safety Catalogues. Guide to this booklet This publication explains what a Health and Safety Catalogue is. It is organised as follows: Section 1 looks at the concept of the Health and Safety Catalogue in more detail. It describes the specific features of the concept, and reviews relevant sources of information. It also considers the relationship between the Health and Safety Catalogue, the RI&E (risk inventory and evaluation), the action plan (plan van aanpak, PvA) and the collective agreement. Section 2 describes the process of drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue. What steps must be taken? Which parties play a role? How does the Labour Inspectorate assess a Health and Safety Catalogue? 1 The CBA was set up by the Labour Foundation to encourage the development of health and safety catalogues. For a complete list of the CBA s members, see Annex 2.

10 Section 1: What is a health and safety catalogue? This section explains what may be referred to as the core of the Health and Safety Catalogue. We begin in Section 1.1. by describing the background of the concept. We then look at the contents of the Health and Safety Catalogue (Sec. 1.2) and the sources that can be consulted (1.3). Section 1.4 discusses the parties that draw up a Health and Safety Catalogue. Section 1.5 explains its status or nature. In Section 1.6, we discuss the period of validity of the Health and Safety Catalogue. Section 1.7 focuses on the specific features that distinguish the Health and Safety Catalogue from the RI&E. The final section (1.8) looks at the catalogue s relationship with the collective agreement. 1.1 A closer look at the Health and Safety Catalogue In order to understand the concept of the Health and Safety Catalogue better, we begin by describing the context in which it arose. To put it briefly, it was government s wish to intervene less in trade and industry that led to the amendments to the Working Conditions Act. On top of this, the social partners had themselves observed that the regulatory burden imposed on them was quite heavy, and that the various government inspectorates sometimes came to contradictory conclusions. The solution to this problem was to shift more responsibility for health and safety policy making to the social partners, and to give them more freedom to determine for themselves which solution or general approach would be possible and desirable. The key is customisation. The Health and Safety Catalogue must meet two separate requirements: it must provide for more customisation and for more individual responsibility. 9

11 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? It is important to note, however, that the core of the Working Conditions Act which imposes an obligation at company level to develop policy (based on the latest scientific research and professional services) by means of a risk inventory and evaluation (RI&E) and action plan remains unchanged. That also holds for the key role of individual employers to develop such a policy at company level, to monitor its proper implementation, and to do so in close consultation with employee representatives at company level (the works council at company or corporate group level, the employee representatives, or the employees concerned). The amendments introduced on 1 January 2007 make a distinction between the public domain and the private domain. In the public domain, government determines the target requirements and the statutory levels of protection. In the private domain, the social partners determine the measures or means that can be used to achieve such targets. In its Explanatory Memorandum, the Government writes: It is the social partners responsibility to develop health and safety catalogues at national and in particular at sector level. The Social and Economic Council s advisory report states: employers and employees determine.... And further: based on agreement between the social partners. This means that the employers associations and trade unions play a crucial role in developing the Health and Safety Catalogue. The Working Conditions Act does not provide any stipulations concerning the form and content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. In other words, the social partners are entirely free and bear full responsibility in this respect. One proviso, however, is that the organisations involved must agree on the content. If they do not, the Health and Safety Catalogue will not pass the assessment and will play no role in the Labour Inspectorate s enforcement. Another proviso is that the Health and Safety Catalogue must not contain anything contrary to the law. Indeed, a Health and Safety Catalogue is only valid after it has been assessed by the Labour Inspectorate. The foregoing leads us to conclude that, according to the law, a Health and Safety Catalogue must have three specific features: 1. The Health and Safety Catalogue is a joint product of the parties involved. These are primarily the social partners or the employers associations and trade unions. These partners must have agreed on the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. 2. A Health and Safety Catalogue is primarily a sector-specific affair. That does not mean that parties cannot agree on a Health and Safety Catalogue at

12 other levels, for example one that applies in multiple sectors or for a group of companies. 3. The content of the Health and Safety Catalogue should focus on measures that are effective in tackling risks identified in the catalogue. In summary: the Health and Safety Catalogue is a document in which employers associations and trade unions determine, at sector level, which measures must and can be taken in order to meet the target requirements set out in the Working Conditions Act. This document has received a positive assessment from the Labour Inspectorate The content of the Health and Safety Catalogue As indicated above, the amendments to the Working Conditions Act introduced on 1 January 2007 make a distinction between the public domain (government regulation) and the private domain (self-regulation by the social partners). The public domain is subject to specific target requirements, or health-related occupational exposure limits. The occupational exposure limits always indicate the minimum level of protection; for example, the law stipulates that hearing protection is compulsory when noise levels exceed 80 dba. There are also occupational risks that the law addresses by setting out general target requirements. The social partners may agree on targets or occupational exposure limits in such cases, but they cannot be derived directly from the Working Conditions Act. The targets or exposure limits for these risks may also be included in the Health and Safety Catalogue. Finally, there are occupational risks for which process standards must be agreed. A process standard states that further arrangements are required for a particular risk. Any health and safety policy measures relating to that risk are also set out in the process standards. The Working Conditions Act prescribes process standards for psycho-social strain (PSS). A process standard may, for example, require the employer to report annually to the works council on any problems that have arisen with respect to a particular risk and what it has done to resolve those problems. It may also require the health and safety service [arbodienst] to report regularly on such risks. The process standard leads to agenda provisions, which identify the elements that must be included in the health and safety policy related to the risk. 11

13 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? Risk: RSI (photo: Vincent van den Hoogen / Hollandse Hoogte)

14 Table 1 lists the various types of target requirements. Table 1. Types of target requirements a. Specific target requirements: health-related occupational exposure limit set out in the law measures must offer at least a minimum level of protection b. General target requirements: no health-related occupational exposure limit measures must result in target being met c. Process provision: no health-related occupational exposure limit agenda provision: further details In addition to the public domain, there is also a private domain. The private domain sets out means requirements. Means requirements are measures or methods to minimise or reduce certain risks or the exposure to those risks, for example hearing protection to prevent hearing loss, or lifting equipment to reduce physical strain. According to the text of the Social and Economic Council s advisory report, these must be approved means and methods. In this case, approved means that investigation and experience have demonstrated the effectiveness of the relevant means or method in reducing the level of risk. Authorities (researchers, experts) agree on this. Approved also often means that research has been carried out on the effects of the means or measure. The core or backbone of the Health and Safety Catalogue therefore also consists of those measures or methods, in other words of the ways in which the target requirements can be met. The measures and means selected in the Health and Safety Catalogue must be based on the latest scientific research and professional services as described in Article 3 of the Working Conditions Act. In deciding on the form and content of the Health and Safety Catalogue, the parties must also decide whether to include all current risks in the sector, and if so to what extent, or whether it would be sufficient to deal with only a single risk. The Working Conditions Act gives employers associations and trade unions the leeway to decide for themselves in this regard. The Labour Foundation, however, recommends compiling a Health and Safety Catalogue that covers all risks arising across the board in the sector. In addition, the parties should consider circumstances that, although limited to only part of the sector, are very serious in nature. Some examples are the danger of falling, exposure to hazardous substances, and the risk of explosion. Such risks are referred to as the priority risks of an industry or sector. 13

15 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? In discussing the measures that should or can be introduced, the parties should follow the occupational health strategy. According to that strategy, the parties should first indicate what measures can be taken to tackle the risk at source. If that is not possible, then collective measures should be introduced that tend to involve separating the workplace from the source of risk. If that too is not possible, then personal protective equipment can be used. In addition, the parties must also take the other provisions set out in Article 3 into account. This means that: the work must be organised such that it does not have a negative impact on the health and safety of employees; the workplace must be set up to accommodate the employee s personal characteristics; monotonous and fast-paced work must be avoided or limited; effective measures must be taken for first aid, fire safety and evacuation, and employees must be able to take suitable steps to avoid the consequences of serious and immediate danger to themselves and others. In addition, the provision unless this cannot be reasonably required remains in force. This clause in the Working Conditions Act means that an employer can petition to be excused from certain statutory obligations because it is unable to meet them for technical, organisational and/or economic reasons. In determining the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue, the level of ambition may also be an issue. The Health and Safety Catalogue will mainly describe measures that have been tested exhaustively and shown to offer a certain level of protection. That level is the statutory minimum, insofar exposure limits have been set for the relevant risks. The sector could, however, also agree to go a step further, for example because it expects new protection methods to be introduced that are still in the testing phase while the Health and Safety Catalogue is being written. The sector may also decide that raising the bar will help the image of the sector (or occupation), making it more attractive to potential employees. Finally, the parties involved may simply believe that working conditions in the sector can and must be improved.

16 1.3 Sources for the Health and Safety Catalogue content It is naturally unnecessary to start from scratch when deciding on the content of a sector s Health and Safety Catalogue. Many sectors already have various documents available that help shape health and safety policy at sector level. These sources are described in brief below. Collective agreements: Arrangements or obligations related to sector-specific health and safety policy have been included in various collective agreements concluded in recent decades. A few sectors have health and safety collective agreements ; these are special collective arrangements that combine a number of health and safety policy agreements. Health and safety covenants: Health and safety covenants have been agreed in more than sixty sectors in recent years. Health and safety covenants are agreements between the social partners and government on measures and working methods that will lead to long-term improvements in working conditions. Many new studies were completed and measures tested and implemented (whether or not they had been improved) during the covenant period, and descriptions of the latest scientific research and professional services were updated. Netherlands Working Conditions Survey: Every year, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has a large-scale survey conducted into the Dutch labour force exploring to what extent and in which sectors stress factors play a role in employees work. The reports reveal the risks involved and trends in those risks. Sector RI&E: In order to make things easier for SMEs in particular, various sectors have developed sector RI&Es. The RI&E provides the basis for surveying risks that arise at sector level. Many of the instruments used are digital in nature. Completed RI&Es may offer useful information for a Health and Safety Catalogue. Policy rules: Various sectors and/or occupations have introduced policy rules. 2 Eventually, many of these will expire, specifically at the point that the sector concerned has properly covered the risk targeted by the policy rule in its Health and Safety Catalogue (in other words, when the Labour Inspectorate has approved the Health and Safety Catalogue). Ultimately, all policy rules will expire 2 Policy rules are rules established by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment that explain the provisions of health and safety legislation. The Labour Inspectorate uses these policy rules in its regulatory role. The basic idea is that if a company acts in accordance with the policy rule, then the Inspectorate can assume that it is complying satisfactorily with the relevant statutory rule. Policy rules cannot be made compulsory. Companies may comply with statutory provisions in other ways, provided that their methods are equally effective or better. 15

17 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? on 1 January 2010 (the end date of the transitional period for the amendments introduced on 1 January 2007). The policy rules often consist of measures and/ or standards that seek to eliminate a certain risk, or to offer a level of protection (or a combination of the two). The parties drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue must consider whether the existing policy rule should be incorporated into the Health and Safety Catalogue, and, if so, how this should be done. Labour Inspectorate publications: The Labour Inspectorate publishes the results of its inspection programmes in the public domain. It drafts reports of each inspection project, and often makes these available to the sector. In addition, the Labour Inspectorate also recently began publishing sector leaflets in which it describes its working methods, the risks it investigates during inspections in the sector, and the standards that it applies. In addition to the sources listed above, parties can also make use of other sources, such as existing guidelines drawn up by many of the sectors, current NEN standards, and Labour Inspectorate fact sheets The parties of the Health and Safety Catalogue In the introduction to this section, we indicated that a Health and Safety Catalogue must be signed by at least two parties: at least one employers association and at least one trade union. In most cases, more than two organisations will sign the Health and Safety Catalogue, however. That is also the case for most collective agreements, and it was the case for working conditions covenants. In generating broad support for the Health and Safety Catalogue, it is important to involve all the relevant parties in drafting it. However, because the Labour Inspectorate also assesses the Health and Safety Catalogue (described in detail later in this booklet), it is also important to demonstrate that the parties signing it actually do represent the employers and employees that it covers (see also Section 2.3). Representative employers associations and trade unions are the obvious parties to draft a catalogue. In order to do so, these parties must agree or reach agreement: on the proposal that a Health and Safety Catalogue is needed in their sector or industry (decision on principle), on the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue, and on the way in which and when the Health and Safety Catalogue will be drafted (the procedure).

18 The foregoing also means that documents distributed under the title Health and Safety Catalogue but not drawn up with the involvement of the social partners cannot be regarded as a Health and Safety Catalogue within the meaning of the Working Conditions Act. A Health and Safety Catalogue of this kind has no official status for a sector or company. A Health and Safety Catalogue only gains official status after it has been assessed by the Labour Inspectorate. The catalogue is then added to the collective policy rule, i.e. the policy rule that will eventually list all Health and Safety Catalogues that have passed the Labour Inspectorate s assessment. The Social and Economic Council s advisory report and the Explanatory Memorandum to the amendments of the Working Conditions Act are primarily concerned with the sector or industry level in their discussions of the form and content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. The decision to draft a Health and Safety Catalogue is left entirely to the social partners, however. The Labour Foundation recommends that the parties first consider at sector or industry level whether a Health and Safety Catalogue is desirable and possible. This may or should avoid a situation in which each party ends up reinventing the wheel, despite there being a great deal of overlapping material. It should also avoid a situation in which no one has or can obtain an overview of the catalogues applicable to occupations in the sector. One obvious strategy in creating a Health and Safety Catalogue at sector level is to adopt the structure or organising principle of the industry or sector collective agreement, or the working conditions covenants as implemented in recent years. There are, of course, sectors that cover different domains but are subject to identical risks. One example is private bathing pools and public bathing pools. Another is private gardening and landscaping firms and municipal service organisations that carry out the same work. Although they are covered by different collective agreements, the rules arising from the Working Conditions Act are identical for similar work. In such situations, the Foundation recommends consulting with the social partners of the opposite number about whether a joint Health and Safety Catalogue would be possible for these sectors. Collaboration between multiple sectors is certainly advisable with respect to particular risks. Issues such as aggression and violence play a role in various sectors in which employees deal with customers, for example ambulance services, banks, utility companies, and various government institutions. It is possible that specific solutions must be found for each of these sectors, making a sector-specific Health and Safety Catalogue an obvious choice. It may, however, also be the case that the solutions or overall solutions are identical, in which case it would 17

19 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? Risk: danger of collision (photo: Ton Poortvliet/Hollandse Hoogte)

20 be advisable to draw up a single Health and Safety Catalogue that can be utilised by the various sectors. In a few cases, a national Health and Safety Catalogue might be considered. There are a number of topics that apply in all sorts of enterprises and sectors, for example protective measures for pregnant women or agreements on the statutory obligations concerning company emergency procedures. The CBA will investigate whether such national Health and Safety Catalogues are desirable and how best to produce them The temporary nature of a Health and Safety Catalogue Parties may indicate the catalogue s period of validity in the Health and Safety Catalogue. As the nature of the work and the way it is organised are subject to constant change, it is advisable to agree on the Health and Safety Catalogue for a limited period of time, with three to five years being a logical option. That would be enough time to ensure that the measures are effectuated sector-wide (insofar as they have not been already). After the three to five-year period, the parties can decide whether there have been any major changes in the nature of the work or in the measures or working methods applied. If so, the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue can then be adjusted accordingly The status of the Health and Safety Catalogue This section answers two questions. First of all, are the social partners obligated to draw up a Health and Safety Catalogue, regardless of the level at which they operate, and if so, to what extent? Secondly, to what extent does having a Health and Safety Catalogue in a sector also impose obligations on the employers and employees in that sector? To answer the first question: a Health and Safety Catalogue is not compulsory. No one can or will order the parties to draw up a Health and Safety Catalogue. It is a voluntary agreement between the social partners. Since the Working Conditions Act was amended on 1 January 2007, parties have the option of developing a Health and Safety Catalogue. That catalogue allows them to arrive at agreements that will guarantee a certain level of protection. The Labour Inspectorate uses the Health and Safety Catalogue in its inspection projects. There are, however, consequences if the sector decides not to draw up a Health and Safety Catalogue, or if it cannot agree on one. The first consequence is that the Labour Inspectorate, bearing in mind the risks in the sector, may decide to conduct more inspections in that sector than in sectors that do have a Health 19

21 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? and Safety Catalogue. Another consequence is that the Labour Inspectorate will use the existing policy rules as a basis for enforcement during its inspections. There are also consequences if the sector decides to draft a Health and Safety Catalogue, however. To begin with, the sector will be subject to fewer inspections than sectors that do not have a Health and Safety Catalogue. Secondly, the Labour Inspectorate will use the Health and Safety Catalogue as its standard for enforcement. In other words, the Health and Safety Catalogue is not free of obligation. Once it has been adopted and positively assessed by the Labour Inspectorate, then companies operating within its scope are expected to use the working methods or measures set out in the catalogue. That is certainly true for the measures and methods focusing on risks for which the law prescribes health-related occupational exposure limits. It also applies to risks for which process standards have been established. Wherever levels of protection have been identified in the Health and Safety Catalogue, individual companies will be expected to achieve those same levels of protection. This does not mean that companies in the sector covered by the Health and Safety Catalogue cannot deviate from the measures it specifies. They may certainly do so, but if they do, they will be obliged to prove that they are maintaining at least the required level of protection defined in the Health and Safety Catalogue or the Working Conditions Act! 1.7. Health and Safety Catalogue versus RI&E Various publications have suggested that the Health and Safety Catalogue should be drafted primarily at individual company level. This idea does not concur with the advice on this subject published by the Social and Economic Council. It is also contrary to the general principles of the amended Working Conditions Act. Assuming that in most cases, the Health and Safety Catalogue will be established at sector level, the question is what added value would a Health and Safety Catalogue have at company level. Occupational risks that arise within the company are covered in the RI&E, and the associated measures are obviously set out in the related action plan, drawn up in consultation with the employee representatives. So in that situation, the Health and Safety Catalogue has no added value at company level. The same arguments apply to company-specific risks and measures that deviate from the overall picture at sector level: these too should be included in the RI&E and related action plan. A Health and Safety Catalogue is therefore unnecessary.

22 A company may have developed specific measures that improve in some way or another on those provided for in the sector s Health and Safety Catalogue. Serious consideration should then be given to including these specific measures in the sector s Health and Safety Catalogue as a good practice or best practice, in order to encourage other parts of the sector to adopt them as well. Better should be understood to mean that the measures are more effective in eliminating or minimising the risk, that they can be effectuated much more quickly, and/or that they are much less expensive. In every case, the measures should guarantee at least the same level of protection as the measures listed in the Health and Safety Catalogue. The same argument holds for large corporations, many of which have long had a health and safety policy, including an RI&E and action plan. Many also have their own health and safety experts or an internal health and safety service. It would be useful in these situations to investigate whether a Health and Safety Catalogue would be of added value, but there is nothing that says that the catalogue is a must. The social partners may reach different conclusions, however. We pointed out earlier that the core of the Working Conditions Act has been retained: the obligation on the part of every employer to devise a health and safety policy for its own company and to draft an RI&E and action plan, in consultation with the employee representatives. Below we once again compare the RI&E and the Health and Safety Catalogue. Health and Safety Catalogue RI&E Scope mainly at sector level by company Parties involved Content Status employers associations and trade unions solutions to priority risks (as determined) choice of approved measures frame of reference for enforcement option for social partners employer and works council/employee representatives or employees concerned all risks plus measures implementation of measures indicated compulsory for employer policy instrument 21

23 Section 1 - What is a health and safety catalogue? 1.8 Health and Safety Catalogue and collective agreements It is possible to link a collective agreement and a Health and Safety Catalogue. The advantage of doing so is that this emphasises the official nature of the Health and Safety Catalogue. If the collective agreement is made effective throughout the entire sector [algemeen verbindend], it then becomes possible to extend coverage of the Health and Safety Catalogue to employers and employees who are not members of the signatory organisations. Individual employers and employees may then enforce compliance with the agreements through private law. Consultations concerning the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue must be kept separate from the consultations or negotiations concerning the collective agreement, however. Health and safety aspects are non-negotiable and cannot be traded in for other employment terms. There are various ways of linking the Health and Safety Catalogue to a collective agreement as an annex or schedule, thereby keeping discussions of the two separate. Brief summary of Labour Foundation s recommendations for drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue

24 Brief summary of Labour Foundation s recommendations for drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue 1. The Foundation recommends that the Health and Safety Catalogue should be agreed primarily at sector level. 2. The content of the Health and Safety Catalogue should consist in any event of measures and/or working methods related to priority risks. 3. The Health and Safety Catalogue is a document adopted by the social partners at sector level. It is advisable to consider whether the catalogue should be updated after a period of three to five years. 4. Those directly affected should be actively involved in developing the Health and Safety Catalogue. 5. The draft catalogue should be submitted to the Labour Inspectorate in order to speed up the process of formal assessment. 6. The parties responsible for drafting the Health and Safety Catalogue should discuss how it will be made available and accessible to the sector. 23

25 Section 2 - What steps must be taken to develop a health and safety catalogue? Risk: danger of falling (photo: Stichting Arbouw)

26 Section 2: What steps must be taken to develop a health and safety catalogue? The entire process for drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue can be divided into four steps. It begins when the social partners take a decision on principle in which they agree a. whether to develop an Health and Safety Catalogue, b. what risks the catalogue will cover, c. and the procedure for developing it. The second step is to discuss the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. In the end, that will result in a text that the social partners then sign. The third step is to submit the text to the Labour Inspectorate for assessment. The fourth step, finally, is to ensure that the Health and Safety Catalogue is made easily available to the sector s employers and employees, as well as to other interested parties, and to see that it actually fulfils the purpose for which it was designed. Step 1: The decision in principle Should we develop a Health and Safety Catalogue? Many sectors have already examined the question of where do we go from here? upon concluding working conditions covenants. In several of them, the employers associations and trade unions involved have already reached agreements in principle on converting their covenants into a Health and Safety Catalogue. Consultations on the Health and Safety Catalogue have yet to begin in many other sectors. An agreement in principle is important in ensuring that all the parties understand the consequences. Drawing up a Health and Safety Catalogue takes time, money and effort. Last but not least, budget arrangements should be part of 25

27 Section 2 - What steps must be taken to develop a health and safety catalogue? the agreements concerning the content of the catalogue. After all, there are costs associated with developing a Health and Safety Catalogue. There is the expense of producing and distributing the catalogue, but there is also the possibility that more research will be required or that external experts will need to be called in, for example. What risks should it cover? Section 1.2 has already examined the various choices that must be made with respect to the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. The Labour Foundation believes that the parties should in any event try to develop a Health and Safety Catalogue that, as a minimum, covers all risks arising across the board in the sector. In addition, it should also cover risks that apply to only a limited group of employees but that put that group and/or their colleagues in the immediate vicinity in serious danger. When discussing these risks, the parties should make use of the working conditions covenants (and their results), the policy rules applicable in the sector, reports by the Labour Inspectorate, and/or studies describing the risks that prevail in various sectors, such as the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey. Studying this material will in many cases lead automatically to the determination of priority risks and what other issues should be addressed. The procedure The more risks are addressed in the Health and Safety Catalogue, the more time the parties will spend developing the procedure for drawing up the Health and Safety Catalogue. It is possible that a project plan will need to be drafted because the work has to be divided into subsidiary projects involving multiple contributors. It is also possible that the catalogue covers so many subjects that is must be completed in stages. Step 2: Discussing the Health and Safety Catalogue Elsewhere in this booklet, we indicated what sources can be used to develop the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue. They are: policy rules, working conditions covenants, Labour Inspectorate publications, and research reports that identify risk exposure. Each sector or industry must naturally consider whether and to what extent the information in the RI&E can be used as Health and Safety Catalogue content. This will naturally involve a great deal of work, which can perhaps be undertaken by health and safety services. In describing the measures, the parties should follow the occupational health strategy. According to this strategy, the parties should begin by seeing

28 whether the relevant risk can be tackled at source. If not, they should then consider whether collective measures can be introduced to control the impact of the risk. If that too is not possible, then personal protective equipment should be used. Step 3: Assessment by the Labour Inspectorate Once the parties have signed the Health and Safety Catalogue, it can be submitted to the Labour Inspectorate for assessment. If the assessment is positive, the Health and Safety Catalogue will be entered into a collective policy rule, the only one that will remain after 1 January The Health and Safety Catalogue must be listed in this rule if the Labour Inspectorate is to use it as a frame of reference during its inspection projects. Listing in the collective policy rule is also a sign that the sector is on the right track. As a result, it may be subject to fewer inspections. The sector is also obligated to demonstrate that the Health and Safety Catalogue has an effect, in other words that it serves as a guideline for health and safety policy at company level. That effect can be demonstrated in a survey study. The Labour Inspectorate can take up to ten weeks to assess the Health and Safety Catalogue, but it may complete its work much sooner. Officially, the assessment is marginal in nature. The Health and Safety Catalogue is assessed on the following factors: Scope: Does it clearly identify the employees or groups of employees for which it is intended? Disclosure: Can all the employers and employees involved obtain a copy of the Health and Safety Catalogue? If so, what arrangements have been made in this regard? Accessibility: Is the Health and Safety Catalogue written in such a way that everyone can understand what it says? Representation: Do the parties signing the Health and Safety Catalogue represent organisations of significance for this sector? And if so, how is that apparent? Contrary to legislation: The Labour Inspectorate assesses the content of the Health and Safety Catalogue only insofar as it checks for provisions contrary to or at loggerheads with legislation. A quick scan shows whether the measures reported in the Health and Safety Catalogue contribute to achieving the target requirements. The Health and Safety Catalogue must provide at least the same level of protection against risks for which the Working Conditions Act sets occupational exposure limits. 27

29 Section 2 - What steps must be taken to develop a health and safety catalogue? Risk: hazardous substances (photo: Felix Kalkman/Hollandse Hoogte)

30 The Labour Inspectorate will provide the sector with a written report on the results of the assessment. Depending on the assessment, the report may also contain advice to the sector. A sector that submits a Health and Safety Catalogue on only one risk when there are generally known to be multiple risks may expect the Labour Inspectorate to address this. Finally, it is advisable to discuss the text of the Health and Safety Catalogue with the Labour Inspectorate as it nears its final stage of composition (the final draft ). This may help speed up the assessment process, and prevent disappointment on the part of the social partners. Step 4: Communication with the sector We already indicated above that during inspections, companies will be assessed on whether they have introduced the measures described in the Health and Safety Catalogue. This indicates that the Health and Safety Catalogue is not free of obligation. In order to ensure that, where necessary, companies have the opportunity to adjust their operations so as to comply with the measures set out in the Health and Safety Catalogue, the employers associations and trade unions should communicate with the sector at the earliest possible stages. Specifically, this means communicating with employers, the works council, the company health and safety officer, and the health and safety service. Solid support for the Health and Safety Catalogue in the sector can naturally be ensured by getting individual companies actively involved in its development. This also gives more meaning to the concept of customisation. It must be possible for every company officer directly involved in health and safety policy to obtain a copy of the Health and Safety Catalogue. They include the employer within the meaning of the Working Conditions Act, the employee charged with coordinating health and safety policy, the members of the works council, and the health and safety service. The sector must itself determine the best way of making the catalogue available. It can do so by placing a downloadable digital version on its website, or by distributing a print version throughout the sector. It can also make use of various sector publications, for example specialist journals, magazines published by industry organisations, or bulletins published by the social partners, and trade fairs. 29

31 Section 2 - What steps must be taken to develop a health and safety catalogue? The communication campaign should devote separate attention to the role of the works council. Works councils in various sectors have sector-level consultation structures. Involving such consultation structures actively in developing the Health and Safety Catalogue may help generate support for implementing the measures at company level. Active involvement on the part of the works council also leads to more support for the Health and Safety Catalogue. After all, the works council has statutory powers with respect to the implementation of measures at company level. It will often have the right of approval [instemmingsrecht] with respect to health and safety policy. Finally, there are the health and safety services. Many sectors have multiple health and safety services. It is advisable to consult these services when developing the Health and Safety Catalogue. They are up to date on the latest scientific research and professional services in the sector. They may also be able to judge whether and to what extent the proposed measures will actually help achieve the target requirements. They can also help implement those measures. A serious effort should therefore be made to obtain the active involvement of the health and safety services.

32 Annex 1: New terms in the working conditions act target requirement means requirement specific target requirement general target requirement process standard agenda provision occupational exposure limit system provision national health & safety law Health and Safety Catalogue Statutory provision that describes the target to be met. The target requirements set out in the Working Conditions Act describe the level of protection that should be provided for employees while they work. Statutory provision indicating the means that must be used to meet the target defined in a target requirement. Means requirements describe the way or ways in which the specified level of health and safety protection can be achieved. A target requirement linked to a health-related or safety-related occupational exposure limit that indicates the boundary between what is and is not safe or healthy. A target requirement that is open to interpretation because it is not linked to a health-related or safety-related occupational exposure limit. Statutory provision for an industrial risk for which an occupational exposure limit has not (yet) been determined. The provision indicates how the relevant risk should be dealt with in the company. Part of a process standard that belongs in the Health and Safety Decree. The agenda provision lists the elements that are part of the health and safety policy related to the relevant subject. The details are settled in the consultations between the employer/employers and employees. An occupational exposure limit marks the boundary between healthy and unhealthy, safe and unsafe. The exposure limit quantifies the statutory level of protection against a specific risk to the employees health and safety. Provisions in the Working Conditions Act that focus on encouraging good health and safety management. Statutory health and safety provisions that do not arise directly from European legislation or ILO conventions ratified by the Netherlands. A document in which employers and employees define what measures can or must be taken to control a particular risk. 31

33 Annexes Risk: dust (photo: Stichting Arbouw)

34 Annex 2: CBA address list The following organisations are represented on the CBA (Health and Safety Catalogue Guidance Committee). The VSO serves on the committee as an observer. Stichting van de Arbeid (Labour Foundation) Bezuidenhoutseweg 60 P.O. Box NL-2509 LK The Hague T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E info@stvda.nl Vereniging VNO-NCW (Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers VNO-NCW) Bezuidenhoutseweg 12 P.O. Box NL-2509 AA The Hague T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E informatie@vno-ncw.nl Kon. Ver. MKB-Nederland (Royal Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Netherlands) Brassersplein 1 P.O. Box 5096 NL-2600 GB Delft T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E redactie@mkb.nl LTO Nederland Land- en Tuinbouworganisatie (Dutch Federation of Agriculture and Horticulture) Bezuidenhoutseweg 225 P.O. Box NL-2502 LT The Hague T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E secretariaat@lto.nl Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging FNV (Federation of Trade Unions ) Naritaweg 10 P.O. Box 8456 NL-1005 AL Amsterdam T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E info@vc.fnv.nl Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond CNV (National Federation of Christian Trade Unions in the Netherlands) Tiberdreef 4 P.O. Box 2475 NL-3500 GL Utrecht T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E cnvinfo@cnv.nl Vakcentrale voor middengroepen en hoger personeel MHP (Trade Union Federation for Intermediate and Higher Employees) Multatulilaan 12 P.O. Box 575 NL-4100 AN Culemborg T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E info@vc-mhp.nl Verbond Sector werkgevers Overheid VSO (Association of Public Sector Employers) P.O. Box NL-2500 EA The Hague T +31 (0) F +31 (0) E vso@minbzk.nl 33