20 years of workplace health and safety committees examined

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France's Economic and Social Council published a study of the role and activities of workplace health and safety committees in November 2001, some 20 years after they were established as independent employee representative bodies responsible for preventing risks at the workplace. The study notably examines the coverage of the committees and assesses their impact.

In November 2001, the Economic and Social Council (Conseil économique et social, CES) published a study of the development of the role and activities of hygiene, safety and working conditions committees (comités d'hygiène, de sécurité et des conditions de travail, CHSCTs) - generally translated as workplace health and safety committee s - prepared under the supervision of Gérard Filoche (Vingt ans de comité d'hygiène et sécurité et des conditions de travail, CES, Paris, Journaux officiels, 12 November 2001).

Based primarily on surveys conducted by the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity's Office for Research and Statistics (Direction de l'animation de la recherche, des études et des statistiques, DARES) and the National Employed Workers' Sickness Insurance Fund (Caisse Nationale d'Assurance maladie des travailleurs salariés, CNAMTS), Mr Filoche's report provides a legal and statistical overview and assessment of the development of the CHSCTs' role since their creation in December 1982, and their implementation in both the private and public sectors.

The CHSCT from theory ...

The last piece of legislation to result from the 'Auroux Report' on workers' rights, the Act of 23 December 1982 set up the new institution of the CHSCT by merging the former hygiene and safety committee (comité d'hygiène et sécurité, CHS) with the former commission for the improvement of working conditions (commission pour l'amélioration des conditions de travail). By making the CHSCT the single workplace body responsible in this area, the legislation sought to make it easier for an overall examination of problems to be carried out, incorporating economic and organisational factors as well as health and safety policies. CHSCTs, which are compulsory in establishments with more than 50 employees, must be consulted before any decision leading to significant changes in working conditions is taken. They are made up of employee representatives, plus the head of the company.

In comparison with the former CHS, the CHSCT's responsibilities thus extend into the area of working conditions. Moreover, the 1982 legislation transformed the committee's legal nature - the CHS was a specialist body with an essentially technical role, while the CHSCT became a new institution for staff representation in its own right. Another important innovation was the establishment of a right to refuse to work in dangerous conditions. Moreover, CHSCTs have the right to carry out surveys and call in experts.

Since 1982, the CHSCT's mission has been further broadened in scope. There are now numerous cases in which CHSCTs must be consulted, not only in relation to protective infrastructure, fire prevention and evacuations, but also in specific cases such as the risks related to asbestos and sexual and 'moral' harassment. Lastly, CHSCTs have been granted a role in the area of environmental protection.

The government thus sought to entrust CHSCTs with a wide range of responsibilities, making them the cornerstone of protective measures against all occupational risks, and established connections between them and other important actors, such as the company medical service, in carrying out their preventative work.

... to practice

There are currently 22,000 CHSCTs in existence, with 140,000 members, and they are present 73% of the companies covered by the legislation. However, states the CES study, these institutions have become aware of the limits of the means of action at their disposal.

All companies with more than 50 employees are required to have a CHSCT. This excludes many workers, as in 1999, 7.1 million employees out of a total of 14.7 million were employed by companies with fewer than 50 staff. The presence of trade unions in companies is positively associated with the existence of a CHSCT, since 82% of relevant workplaces which have both a works council and a trade union delegate have a CHSCT, as opposed to just 62% of those with a works council but no union delegate.

The sectoral distribution of CHSCTs shows that their presence is weakest in the service sector and in building and public works (BTP), where most companies are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The lowest rates of CHSCT coverage in relevant companies - 65% in BTP, 66% in business services, 62% in health and education, and 47% in services to private clients - are found in sectors in which the presence of workforce delegate s, works councils and union delegates is also usually lowest.

The relationship between means and needs is assessed in the study with regard to the frequency of the risks of work-related accidents and occupational illness by size of company. This frequency is twice as high in businesses with 20-49 employees and 50-100 employees as it is for those with over 300 employees. So it is where there are the fewest CHSCTs that the most accidents and occupational illnesses occur. However, there is a downward trend in the number of CHSCTs in SMEs, while the trend is an upward one in larger companies. CHSCTs therefore exist where the risk factors are generally the least frequent.

Although CHSCTs have obviously had positive effects at the micro level, it is more difficult to present a record of their action on the macro level, the study finds. If the presence of CHSCTs is roughly compared with a graph over time of work-related accidents and occupational illnesses, this exercise gives no clear answer. On one hand, CHSCTs appear to have lowered the level of occupational risks, as the legislator wanted: the amount of accidents has fallen considerably since 1974. On the other hand, the frequency rate - ie the ratio of the number of work-related accidents to the number of hours worked - fell half as quickly between 1988 and 1998 than it did between 1970 and 1987 for the economy as a whole. It was when companies introduced new forms of work organisation ('just-in-time' work, flexibility etc) that the frequency rate dropped more slowly.

Moreover, occupational accidents and illnesses have risen since 1997 for complex reasons, which are linked to the rise in both the employment rate and precarious work. The figures reveal that increasing workloads, flexibility and precariousness (temporary agency work and fixed-term contracts) are negative factors in terms of risk prevention and have raised the frequency of risks.

Occupational illnesses rose between 1995 and 1998, though this phenomenon is thought to be partly due to improved declaration procedures. One hypothesis is that the employees whose state of health is poor are those subject to heavy workloads but with very little occupational and decision-making autonomy. Periarticular ailments (movement-related complaints due to long-term static postures) are the most frequent group of occupational illnesses, accounting for 67% of those reported in 1998. Ailments due to over-exposure to noise are second, ahead of asbestos and cancer.

In the face of changing perceptions caused by the intensification of workloads and productivity gains (according to an opinion poll, the risks which most concern French people are stress and harassment), the use of the term 'hygiene, safety and working conditions committee', which replaced 'hygiene and safety committee', has fitted in perfectly with this development and even predated it, though the available means have not matched the government's level of ambition. CHSCTs have no working budget of their own: it is the company that provides them with the necessary funds on a case-by-case basis.

Commentary

What makes the study adopted by the CES's subcommittee on work, and by the majority of CES members (employers' representatives having voted against), interesting is that it points out the areas where CHSCTs' powers have been extended without corresponding funds and other means for exercising them. This is true for example, of the area of environmental protection, and in the relationships between large groups and subcontractors. Also interesting is the fact that the study suggests areas for new thinking and improvements. For example, to bolster the authority of employee representatives on CHSCTs, the reports' author calls for a debate on introducing elections for them, as is the case all the other staff representative institutions (CHSCT members are currently appointed by other employee representatives).

The CES's very useful work on a little-studied subject deserves to be followed up in a number of different areas. Among other matters, studying working conditions prior to 1982 more precisely - for example by using figures from the National Old-Age Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance vieillesse, CNAV) on incapacity retirement pensions - might provide a valuable complementary longer-term historical perspective. These figures show that from the early 1960s, the number of people receiving incapacity pensions rose steadily to the point where their numbers were equivalent to 18% of those on normal pensions in 1997. (Odile Join-Lambert, IRES)