The background for the proposed directive is the goal of improving health and safety at work. The directive in question is one of four directives on protecting workers from the harmful effects of ’physical agents’. Directives on noise, vibrations, and electromagnetic fields have already been adopted.
Focussing on exposure to optical radiation, the directive has been particularly controversial due to the Commission’s initial suggestion that natural radiation, i.e. sunlight, should be included in the directive. The Council supported this suggestion for EU wide rules on the exposure of workers to sunlight. The EP, however, did not agree that this should be decided at the EU level.
Several MEPs from right and liberal parties have criticized this suggestion and arguing that it is not up to the EU to decide whether construction workers can wear shorts or barmaids can sport skimpy tops.
MEP Liz Lynne has been particularly outspoken. The main argument used by the opponents of the ’sunlight clause’ have pointed to the differences in exposure between e.g. Finland and Greece. Their opposition to including sunlight has been supported by industry and especially representatives for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as they fear an excessive administrative burden will follow such an inclusion.
The socialist and green partites in the EP, however, have been mainly in support of the inclusion of sunlight in the directive. They see this as part of the wider EU goal to improve citizens’ health and wellbeing. Particularly the rise in skin cancer as a result of sunlight exposure has been brought up as an issue for the EU to take action on.
In the vote in the EP plenary in Strasbourg on 7 September the clause including sunlight was voted out in favour of a compromise amendment leaving it up to Member States to decide what kind of measures to be taken to protect workers from natural radiation. The vote against including sunlight was 397 to 260 with 9 abstentions.
The EP position will now be considered in the Council. If the Council does not agree with the EP the proposal will have to go through the conciliation procedure to find a compromise solution before the directive can be adopted.
The Education, Youth and Culture Ministers’ position
On the 23 February 2006, the Council adopted the Directive following an agreement reached with the European Parliament in the Conciliation Committee.
The European Council and the European Parliament agreed to exclude natural sun radiation from the scope of the directive. It will be therefore up to each Member State to decide whether employers should protect workers from the sun.
