제  목 : Germany Last to Adopt EU Framework Directive
  일  자 : 1997년 01월
  제공처 : Safety ＆ Health

  Both houses of the German federal government have formally passed
       the European Union's Occupational Health and Safety Framework
       Directive. The directive is the key to EU health and safety legislation.
       Germany is the last of the member states to adopt the directive.
       Much of the current German Industrial Code, which dates back to l869,
       will be repealed to make way for the directive.

  The government rejected the first draft of the law two years ago
       because officials thought it was too costly and added nothing useful
       to the country's existing laws. Redrafts and delays followed,
       which drew criticism from the federal government's own Ministry of
       Social Affairs and other member states.

  Dr. Ullrich Riese of the Federal Institute for Safety and Industrial
       Medicine says the final version is "weaker" than the earlier attempts.
       "Specific regulations on medical surveillance as well as those
       establishing relations between labor inspectorates and workers-
       compensation insurance organizations were dropped," he says.

  Company-level prevention in Germany is provided to about 50 percent
       of enterprises by separate safety-engineering and medical services.
       The institute will provide training to encourage these two disciplines
       to work together more closely than at present, says Riese.

  Comprehensive risk assessment is an important feature of the
       frame-work directive and a new develop-ment in German law. Companies
       with normal risk levels that employ fewer than lO staff people will
       not be required to provide a written risk assessment.

  Riese says, "The institute is now preparing general guidelines
       for risk assessment. The workers-compensation insurance organizations
       will then make specific risk checklists for their particular
       occupation or industry."

  Labor inspectors will become more systematic in their activities
       and focus on whole industry branches rather than random inspections,
       says Riese. "The availability of written risks assessment
       in enterprises will actually helplabor inspectors in their avtivities."

  The European Commission has not yet formally commented on the
       German version of the law.