Safety and health at work

The Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work (ACSH) held its eighth meeting in Luxembourg on June 21, which was preceded by full-day meetings of the three Interest Groups.

Malta was represented by FOI administration manager John B. Scicluna for the employers, General Workers Union president Salvu Sammut for the workers, and Occupational Health and Safety Authority chief executive Dr Mark Gauci for the government.

The item that generated the greatest debate during the long agenda of the advisory meeting, was a recommendation by the Working Party on Electromagnetic Fields that the EU should delay the implementation of Directive 2004/40/EC regarding exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents (electromagnetic fields).

This recommendation was motivated by the fact that there were difficulties to ensure appropriate implementation as far as the assessment and calculation of the exposure limit values were concerned. The lack of clarity could create confusion in the courts in case of infringement procedures.

Furthermore, there were conflicting interpretations of the provisions of the directive concerning static fields. The Working Party therefore recommended that the Commission should delay the transposition date for the implementation of the directive until it organised a clarification of the technical and the legal aspects. The Commission stated that it would actively consider this recommendation.