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The conservative majority in the European Parliament decided in a second reading on Wednesday 7 September to put natural sources of radiation (solar radiation) outside the scope of a directive on the minimum safety and health requirements regarding the exposure of workers to physical agents (optical radiation).
The MEPs passed most of the amendments put forward by Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee by 397 votes to 260 with 9 abstentions. Two amendments criticised by trade unions were finally rubber-stamped by a majority of MEPs. These will leave it to Member States to decide whether to make employers assess the risks of exposure to natural UV radiation for workers' health.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) had warned MEPs that these amendments will undermine the scope of the directive by putting natural UV radiation outside it. The directive will now cover only damage to eyesight from artificial radiation and lasers, leaving the damaging effects of sunshine (cancer, eye and skin diseases) completely uncovered.
European trade unions cannot accept this step back, because the health of millions of European workers is at stake. Exposure to sunshine can be lethally damaging to the health of workers in many sectors (building, fishing, farming, tourism, etc.), as the European and WHO statistics on skin cancer mortality show.
If the Council does not accept Parliament’s amendments by unanimous vote, a conciliation procedure will be set going for the two joint legislators to try and work out a compromise. If they cannot, the directive could simply be scrapped.
The Optical Radiation Directive is the fourth and final part of a package of legislative measures to protect workers against the dangers of various “physical agents”. The other directives deal with exposure to noise, vibrations and electromagnetic fields.
Statistics on the exposure of workers to solar radiation and on skin cancer can be found at:
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