|
At the session of the Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee
Deputy Chief Labour Inspector Anna Tomczyk attended the 56
session of Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee (SLIC). It was held
in Prague, Czech Republic on 28 and 29 May 2009. The Polish
delegation presented a report summing up implementation of the
European campaign “Manual Handling of Loads” coordinated in 2008 by
the Polish National Labour Inspectorate.
The chairperson of SLIC – Costas Constantinou thanked the
Polish inspectorate for its huge input of work into efficient
coordination of the last year’s campaign, all the products prepared
for its implementation and recalled this year’s April seminar held
at the NLI’s Training Centre in Wrocław to sum up the joint
initiative. The National Labour Inspectorate’s presentation reminded
SLIC’s members about the campaign’s Internet website which will be
available until 2012. The Polish proposal to continue exchange of
information on manual handling of loads within the framework of a
discussion group which would communicate on-line was referred to
during presentation on the functioning of the Knowledge Sharing Site.
If a discussion group of inspectors dealing with prevention of
work-related MSDs is established and if it functions based on the
existing CIRCA-KSS system, it will be arranged in such a way that
authorised persons can exchange information directly without the
involvement of national coordinators.
The subject of the Thematic Day was “Reducing the incidence rate of
occupational accidents and diseases in line with the Community
strategy on health and safety at work 2007-2012. Role and activities
of national labour inspectorates”. The participants were reminded
about the global scale of losses caused by work accidents amounting
to 4% of GDP. It was, however, pointed out that accident statistics
is not collected in the same way in individual countries. Jukka
Takala, Director of the OSH Agency in Bilabo recalled that the
Community strategy, while assuming 25% reduction in accident rates,
underlines the necessity to promote prevention culture as well as
adopt and implement uniform strategy in this area in individual
states. In his opinion, the current economic crisis will result in a
decrease in the overall number and rates of accidents and employment
of immigrants. On the other hand, it will cause increase in
temporary and part-time employment, self-employment and
restructuring which entail negative health effects, psychosocial
disorders and cardiovascular disorders.
On the basis of a questionnaire launched by the Czech labour
inspectorate it has been concluded that in most countries there was
some decrease in the number of accidents in the period 2006-2007,
yet in several countries the number of accidents increased (the
Netherlands, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Great Britain). Not
all member states included data for 2008, yet the overall tendency
was similar.
SLIC approved the final report presented to the plenary, which
summed up results of the inspection campaign focused on asbestos
removal, implemented in 2006. A draft leaflet to promote CIRCA-KSS
network in individual labour inspectorates was presented and a
meeting for national coordinators at the beginning of December 2009
was announced. SLIC Secretary invited Committee members to submit
requests for labour inspectors exchange, for which the deadline was
extended until the end of June. SLIC members were also informed that
because the term of office of the current Committee ends this year,
the European Commission services will launch a procedure, via
permanent representations to the EU, to nominate new members of SLIC.
In accordance with the Commission’s decision, from January 2010 on
the Committee will consist of one representative from each EU labour
inspectorate. It is assumed that they can be accompanied by experts.
|
