The draft directive on "the exposure of workers to the risks arising from physical agents - optical radiation" which originally included exposure to solar radiation was amended by the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 12 July.

The amendment leaves it to Member States to decide whether employers should be required to assess the health risks to workers who are exposed to sunlight.

The ETUI-REHS’ Health and Safety Department condemns this back-pedalling, which means that the harmful effects of sunlight are all-but dismissed at Community level.

What is especially shameful about this decision is that the preventive measures required by employers are unbelievably simple and cheap: check the UV index (supplied by the national weather centre), and if need be, ask workers to cover their upper bodies, arms and heads.

The amended text still has to be adopted by the EP in its plenary session in early September in Strasbourg.

• ETUC letter to the European Parliament
• European Parliament press release