The second draft report from the Social Affairs Sub-Committee deals with the Community's action programme on safety and health at work. This is a very important general action programme which would have very considerable implications for Ireland and which the Sub-Committee viewed as an overall programme which will lead to a number of detailed proposals which the Joint Committee would have a further opportunity of examining. However, we felt it was very important to look at the framework, at the priorities and the standards being set in the overall programme with a view to seeing what was the Irish position. Then we anticipate seeing more specific proposals in due course. This was the main focus of our report.
The Commission have put forward this long, detailed general programme and again have asked that the Council take a decision on the proposed programme by the end of this year. I understand that the Minister for Labour has sought a copy of this draft report, knowing that it was coming before the Joint Committee this afternoon, because he is attending a meeting in Brussels at which decisions may be made on this Community programme and he was anxious to have the views of the Joint Committee. For once we are in time with our report, if only just, to be helpful in whatever discussions are taking place at the European Community level.
Paragraph 4 summarises the thrust of the proposed programme. It says that the stated objectives of the proposed programme are (a) the improvement of the working situation with a view to increased safety and with due regard to health requirements in the organisation of the work, (b) the improvement of knowledge in order to identify and assess risks and perfect prevention and control needs and (c) the improvement of human attitudes in order to promote and develop safety and health consciousness. The Commission then in that context have proposed several initiatives that we set out: first of all, incorporating safety aspects into the design, production and operation of places of work, machinery, equipment and so on; secondly, determining the exposure limits for workers of pollutants and harmful substances present or likely to be present at work; thirdly, monitoring workers' health and safety more extensively; fourthly, inquiring into the causes of acidents and diseases and assessing the risks connected with work. Then co-ordinating and promoting research on occupational health and safety and, lastly, developing health and safety consciousness by education and training. There is therefore an aspect of looking at questions of design and places of work, the safety of equipment. There is the question of exposure limits, the question of better knowledge about pollutants and harmful substances, the positive approach of monitoring workers' health and safety. There is a research element of inquiring into causes of accidents and diseases, inquiring into occupational health and safety and finally there is the whole element of education and training. Clearly this would form a series of specific directives on other measures, and also activity which would not require directives but would be more a co-ordination of what was happening in the different member states.
Paragraph 5 looks at the implications for Ireland and we note that if the draft programme is accepted by the Council we can expect various specific proposals to emanate from the Commission, and we will have an opportunity of looking at these. We are informed that some of these will be binding directives and others will be other kinds of measures.
At paragraph 7 we note that there is already a considerable body of legislation dealing with the occupational safety, health and welfare of workers mainly in industry which is administered by the Department of Labour, and that machinery is already there for adapting existing legislation to comply with any Community legislation that may emerge. Apart from regulations under the European Communities Act, 1972 there is provision in the Safety in Industry Bill, 1978 enabling the Minister for Labour to amend existing legislation by order so as to comply with any international obligations.
We note at paragraph 8 that the initiatives proposed in the draft programme, aiming at the development in the medium and the long term, of safety and health consciousness would be of interest also to the Department of Education and that this would require the basic principles of safety and health education to be taught in schools. We also consulted and obtained the views of the Department of Agriculture on the question of safety at work in agriculture.
Paragraph 10 summarises the views of the bodies consulted. The Federated Union of Employers consider that the contents of the draft programme are in general acceptable. They point to the rather wide scope and general proposals in the programme and they say that more specific comment can only be made when there are more specific recommendations, regulations or directives. The Irish Farmers' Association express their full support for the Community's efforts in making work on farms safer, and they approve the efforts being made to improve tractor and machinery design with a view to making such machinery safer to operate. I found that the Association had not completely concluded their examination of what might be some of the most specific proposals to emerge.
Mr. Donal O'Sullivan of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union expressed wholehearted support for the proposed programme, and saw it as a very welcome programme because it was an overall programme related to research and educational aspects of health and safety at work; he believed that in many aspects other member states are in advance of the position in Ireland and that this would be a stimulus to introducing more monitoring here and better emphasis on the health and environment of the worker.
At paragraph 13 we say that the Joint Committee regards the proposed Community programme as an excellent framework within which the better protection of workers can be pursued. As the least industrially advanced of the Member States Ireland has the opportunity of ensuring that in newly established industries the highest standards in the matter of safety and health are adopted from the outset. The standards which will be more readily accepted are those that are the product of wide-ranging research and have the support of internationally acknowledged experts. The proposed programme should help to achieve that objective if it is adopted. This is extremely important in view of the kind of industry we are tending to attract to Ireland, in view of the comparative advantage of developing later than some of the other Member States, and having the benefit perhaps of learning from their experience.
At paragraph 14 the Joint Committee welcomes the emphasis placed on the proposed programme on the need for incorporating safety aspects in the design of work places, machinery, equipment and plant, and commends the stress placed on health at work, an aspect which could perhaps be given more attention here. There was an indication from those who submitted evidence to us, that there was more evidence of concern about safety at work than about monitoring workers' health This was an aspect on which the programme has laid very strong emphasis and we have much to gain from that. In the Committee's view there is need not merely for ensuring that proper standards are prescribed but for regular monitoring of workers' health to ensure the adequacy of those standards. The promotion of health and safety consciousness is one of the necessary ingredients of the programme and in the Committee's view training programmes should be expected to contribute to this task.
Since the programme is a general one ranging over a very wide field, there would presumably be a need, if this programme is adopted by the Council of Ministers, to establish priorities and to set a time scale for the implementation of the various measures. We felt that it would be appropriate for us to try to set within that very general programme some of the priorities we saw and these are set out in paragraph 15. We would like to see some priority given to the action proposed in relation to noise and vibration control, harmonisation of permissible levels of exposure to toxic substances or physically harmful substances, carcinogens, toxicological evaluation and monitoring of workers' safety and health. We had set our general priorities in the programme, and this was an attempt to be more specific in the kind of directives or regulations we would like to see coming out of this overall programme.
In paragraph 16 we record our acknowledgements and thanks to the Federated Union of Employers, the Irish Farmers' Association and Mr. Donal O'Sullivan of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union.