Priorities and strategies of the labour inspectorate for an effective inspection and enforcement of the risk assessment

Transcription

1 Seite 1 von 6 Priorities and strategies of the labour inspectorate for an effective inspection and enforcement of the risk assessment E.-F. Pernack, D. Mohr 1), H. Skoruppa 1) Ministerium für Arbeit, Soziales, Gesundheit und Frauen des Landes Brandenburg 1) Landesinstitut für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin Potsdam (presented by E.-F. Pernack at the SLIC-Conference in Vienna, November 1998) Deutsche Version The Thematic Day at the this year's meeting of the Senior Labour Inspectors' Committee has the topic "Evaluation of Hazards, Risk Assessment and Activities of the Labour Inspectorates". Mister Albracht, Chairman of the working group 2 (two) asked me for a presentation of some aspects on the subtopic "enforcement and control". That should be a starting point for the following discussion. At first some remarks to my person. My name is Ernst-Friedrich Pernack. I am a physicist and I have been working in the field of occupational health, occupational hygiene and epidemiology since In 1992 I became head of the labour inspectorate in Land Brandenburg, one of the new German countries. I work as a referent (consultant) in the labour division of the Ministry of Health, Women, Labour and Social Affairs of Land Brandenburg and so I am responsible for the strategies and the organization of our labour inspection. One of my main tasks is the development and the harmonization (tuning) of strategies and measures for an effective governmental control in relation to the given capacities of the authorities and to succeed (enforce) the regulations on occupational health and safety at work. Now let me start with my statements to the topic. In the Occupational Health Framework Directive of 1989 the fundamental obligations to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work are determined. The employers have the obligation to identify the risks at work and to eliminate these risks. If that is not possible, they have to assess the remaining risks and to minimize them. The risk assessment, the derivated ergonomic measures, the priorities, the deadlines and the responsibilities have to be recorded in a plan of measures. Neither in the framework directive nor in the transposition into German law there is a regulation, how the employer has to evaluate the hazards and to assess the risks. This is a new principle in the German law on occupational health and safety. In the past new regulations were enacted when new types of hazards had been detected. This kind of legislation has lead to a terrible abundance of special regulations.

2 Seite 2 von 6 The new approach with a limitation in the legislation only onto the targets of occupational health and safety strengthens the responsibility of the employers and motivates them to (for) a systematically, consistent and comprehensive prevention. This causes higher demands on all partners, on the employers and also on the employees in assisting the employers, on the safety experts in the enterprises, on the external prevention services and last not least on the labour inspectors. In Land Brandenburg - the country I come from - a campaign was conceived. Content is the ascertainment of the state of risk assesment in SMEs about two years after the legal basis had come into force. I would like to report on interim results. The campaign pursues two main aims: The implementation of demands of the occupational safety act for risk assessment should be positively influenced by the state regarding quantitiy and quality. In the result of the campaign a catalogue of criteria should be drawn up with the help of which it is possible to assess the quality of risk documentation in enterprises. During the stage of the preparation of the conception members of the Labour Inspectorates described very different views with regard to advice, inspection and enforcement, e.g.: all workplaces of an enterprise have to be supervised with reference to the occurring risks the profound recognition and evaluation of all risks is only possible with a team of specialized inspectors a qualified advisory service is only given if essential parts of the assessment of working conditions up to categorizing of risks are carried out by labour inspectors together with employers. This discussion on the conceptional basis obviously showed how important it is for a successful fulfillment of tasks within the advisory and inspection activity to have a homogeneous philosophy of approach. In the result of this process it was worked out, that risk assessment primarily is an in-plant instrument. It should help the employers to systemize their activities in the field of occupational safety and health at workplace and to achieve a preventive orientation in their activities. Therefore a good methodology in the form of a guidline or manual can in fact contribute to transparency and clearness of taken measures and thus to make the work of labour inspectorates easier. For the effectiveness the way is not decisive but the result. To get a representative statement 415 small and medium sized enterprises with 10 to 50 employees are included in the analyses. They are spread over the branches metal, building construction, chemistry, wood, agriculture and service. In these plants which are all under the legal obligation for recording the results, first of all site visits are carried out to record the actual conditions. After that, in an interview with the employer the question is being discussed if there has already been a risk assessment and occupational safety measures have been determined. When there has already been a risk assessment in a second step the ascertained actual condition from the site visit is verified with the recorded risk assessment.

3 Seite 3 von 6 It is especially determined: if faults, which were recognized by inspectors, are considered in the risk assessment and if there is an effective plan of measures if all workplaces were assessed if there has been a categorizing of risks and a priorisation of measures in which form the record is present (e.g. operating instructions, protocols of site visits, risk catalogue) if certain determinations of the record have already been enforced. With the help of that verification the quality is evaluated. If it is insufficient because consideralbe risks were not identified, employers will be advised on their obligations. This advice should include information according to aims and contents of risk assessment and realization of measures. Hints to identified risks are given as well as to information and instruction material. For eliminating the fault "lacking or in sufficient risk assessment" there is a deadline of half a year. After direct risks have been identified in the revision employers are obliged to eliminate the faults by an order with a deadline. If there is no risk assessement, not even in the follow-up check, a fine can be imposed on the employer. There are not any pracitical experiences yet. After 150 carried out site visits the following results are to be set up: Only 1/3 (one third) of the enterprises had a documentation on the inspection's date, i. e. the majority of enterprises has not fulfilled their legal obligation since August 1997, although they were members of accident insurance association and were looked after by external preventive services. In the interview the employers gave the following reasons: ignorance of legislation, the act was not present in the enterprise uncertainty within the implementation of legal requirement for lack of support and advice intentional avoidance of documentation, because for employers it seemed to be a formalism for the satisfaction of labour inspection the additional expenditure is in contrast to the lack of incentive, because a direct connection to increased results in the enterprise respectively the reduction of costs is not seen. The following findings are drawn from risk assessment by labor inspectorates in SMEs: In fixed establishments the verification of the norm with actual conditions ist easier than in temporary workplaces, e.g. in building construction or agriculture. A check of working conditions does not produce a representative picture because of fast change of conditions. In that case the documentation is evaluated according to plausibility and suitibility as a management instrument. Especially in building construction as well as in agriculture an activity-related ist assessment is recommended. The main priority of the assessment is given to accident causing factors like mechanical and electrical dangers and the dangers of fire and explosion, hot and cold

4 Seite 4 von 6 media. The so called hard factors like plants, hazardous substances, radiation as well as noise are taken into account. Factors which are seldom identified and evaluated are vibration, lighting, climate, physical and psychical stress and strain, ergonomic design of workplace and environment or handling of that underlines the necessity of developing and providing practical guidlines for employers, employees as well as external preventive and inspection services. The quality of risk assessment ist higher when external preventive services support the employers. This is due to the special training and knowledge of their members and to the provision and use of working aids. The weak points lie in the area of the so called soft factors (without norms) e.g. physical and psychical stress and strain. Guidance on risk assessment are important instruments for improving occupational safety in small enterprises, for winning enterprises for effective occupational safety and its integrating into management processes in enterprises. But they can never be a finished system. The use of guidance in the form of checklists does not substitute the establishing of connections between working conditions, working hours, work organization and social relations. A good guidance makes purposeful acting easier and minimizes expenditure and costs. Through systematic procedure following a guidance it is easier for employers to prove the fulfillment of his duties. The inclusion of employers and their representatives is still insufficient. Important experiences from daily work cannot be used for the determination of occupational safety measures. Therfore the acceptance of employers is lacking. From that the following conclusions can be derived for the discussion: For the fulfilment of the demands of the framework directive a verification only of the actual working conditions with the norm ist not sufficient. It is also necessary for the employer and for the labour inspectors to consider the state of the art, the state of the occupational hygiene and science and the state of ergonomic knowledge for a decision on measures of occupational safety and health. The technology, the organization of the work, the social relations, the environmental influence on the workplace and other working conditions have to be considered. Employers and labour inspectors have to recognize the interaction of activity related stress (e.g. forced postures, long term concentration, monotony), of environmental stress (e.g. noise, vibration, dust, toxic substances, climate, lighting) and of work organizational stress (e.g. work at a production line, team work) and to take them into consideration. The labour inspectorates have to assess the enterprises' activities in the whole for the avoidance or minimizing of occupational hazards the instruction of the employees in relation to the workplace and the tasks the sufficient qualification of the employees the suitable safety management system in the enterprise and the provision of means and money for the measures of occupational health and safety. These demands force the labour inspectorates to altered and extended

5 Seite 5 von 6 comprehensive methods of control and to new incentives. The labour inspectors have to be enabled for the identification of hazards and risks due to lack of an ergonomical design of the workplace lack of an ergonimical design of the working equipment faults in the choice of the means of production or of the substances and in the handling of these substances physical, chemical and biological factors faults in the choice of personal protective equipment faults in the work organization inadequate or insufficient qualification, skill or capability of the employees insufficient information, instruction and training of the employees. They also have to check the function of the enterprises safety management system. A long term improvement of the enterprise occupational health and safety level is only achieved if the conditions for the origin of faults and lacks are considered and influenced. This requires an analysis of the enterprises safety and health management system. One instrument for a comprehensive check of the structural and process organization in plants through labour inspectors was worked out in Land Hessen within the ASCA-project. Meanwhile it was used and tested in more than 800 enterprises of different sizes (from ca 20 employees to a group) and economic sectors. Enterprises have been using the instrument on their own responsibility for some time. Starting point is a so called ideal modell of structural and process organization which serves as a background for questioning and evaluating enterprises. It is a combination of demands on the organization of enterprises - derived from regulations and experiences. The analysis is concentrated on three focal points: Are there clear, well operating organizational regulations in the enterprise? Are the regulations comprehensive? Are responsibilities clear and looked after in practice? Derived from that modell in Land Hessen a guidline was worked out on the design of management systems in occupational safety. The labour inspectors must have a high level of knowledge to be accepted as a partner of the enterprise. The qualification has to be developed step by step especially in the fields of ergonomics, physical and psychical stress and strain as well as the complex view on technical equipment, organization and personnel. We have to step away from the technically determined kind of view to a comprehensive one. Higher demands develope in the communicative and organizational area. SMEs have to be convinced of the aim and purpose of legal regulations by purposeful advice and special support. Different ways are possible, e.g. guidelines, information sheets and meetings in cooperation with trade unions and employers' associations. Direct contact with employer and emlpoyee is the most favourable way. Compulsory measures by the

6 Seite 6 von 6 authorities are only applied if employers do not fulfill their duties and act against better knowledge. A preventive orientation in occupational safety needs the acceptance of acting and measures by affected employees and their experience and competence. Employees have to be more involved in the process of the design of humane working conditions, by external and internal experts, e.g. the labour inspectorate. External preventive services can be recommended if the processes to be assessed and the connected hazards are not easy and simply identifiable or analyses and measurements are necessary. Good services have qualified sector-specific knowledge combined with great experience. Their results should be taken into consideration for the evaluation of the whole situation.