In late 2005, the Union of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia (ZSSS) continues to highlight the difficult situation of workers with occupational diseases, who cannot exercise their rights because the minister of health has not determined the procedures for the verification of such diseases. A 2003 Resolution on the National Programme on Health and Safety at Work provides for the appropriate regulation of the verification of occupational diseases and its financing, but has not yet been implemented.
The Union of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia (Zveza svobodnih sindikatov Slovenije, ZSSS) (SI0210102F) has frequently raised the difficult situation of workers with occupational diseases (SI0511302F) with the public, the government and parliament (SI0505301N). These workers cannot exercise the rights to which they are entitled if they have a verified occupational disease, and ZSSS argues that this is a violation of human rights. Therefore, on 10 December 2004, international human rights day, it organised a protest rally in front of the parliament building to draw attention of politicians to this problem. ZSSS has reminded the government about this problem several times a year without any success.
Rights of workers with occupational diseases
According to the legislation on compulsory pension and disability insurance and compulsory health insurance, a worker with an occupational disease has greater rights than a worker with a non-occupational disease. In the case of an occupational disease, the worker receives a higher disability pension, and there are no limits regarding the age and contribution period required to claim the right to a disability pension.
According to the 1992 Law on Healthcare and Health Insurance (LHCHI) (compulsory health insurance), pay compensation for absence from work due to ill health is also higher in the case of an occupational disease (100% of the average monthly pay) than in the case of a non-occupational disease (90% of the average monthly pay). Workers with occupational diseases can claim high damages from the employer in court, though only on the basis of a verified occupational disease.
In the event that a worker does not exercise his or her rights arising from having an occupational disease, both compulsory pension and disability insurance and compulsory health insurance automatically recognise these rights as being related to a non-occupational disease. In Slovenia, unlike in many other EU countries, both compulsory insurances insure for both kinds of risks (occupational and non-occupational diseases). Thereby the social security of the individual is guaranteed. For this reason, there have in the past been few political problems regarding the verification of occupational diseases.
Rules on Schedule of Occupational Diseases
Article 65 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance (LPDI) states:
The details are determined in the Rules on the Schedule of Occupational Diseases (RSOD). The old schedule of occupational diseases dating from 1983 (included in the 'self-management agreement on the schedule of occupational diseases') was in force for 20 years. It was not harmonised with European Commission Recommendation 90/326/EEC of 22 May 1990 concerning the adoption of a European schedule of occupational diseases intended for national schedules of occupational diseases (updated by Commission Recommendation of 19 September 2003 concerning the European schedule of occupational diseases).
Verification procedure not determined
The new RSOD with a Schedule of Occupational Diseases (SOD), laid down by the minister responsible for labour, did not come into force until 13 September 2003. The Rules should be determined by the minister responsible for labour in cooperation with the minister responsible for health (see above). Because the cooperation between experts from the two ministries is traditionally poor, the new Rules were adopted very late and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia without the consent of the minister of health. Contrary to the usual practice, the draft new Rules were not submitted for discussion at the Economic and Social Council of Slovenia (Ekonomsko socialni svet Slovenije, ESSS) (SI0207103F). The result is arguably a set of rules which cannot be applied in practice, although Slovenia can state that it has met its EU commitments by having harmonised the schedule of occupational diseases.
The minister of health did not determine the procedures for the verification of occupational diseases (ie to confirm by examination that a worker truly has an occupational disease). These procedures should include reporting and verification of the occupational disease. Furthermore, the financing of the verification is also not regulated and the impartiality of the authorised doctor is not ensured. Therefore, the workers concerned cannot exercise the rights to which they are entitled because they cannot officially prove that they suffer from an occupational disease. They can exercise only the lesser rights that apply in the case of a non-occupational disease (ie a disease can result either from occupational reasons or reasons unrelated to a particular occupation). The new RSOD apparently allocates the duty to identify and verify occupational diseases to disability commissions, which are the expert bodies of the Pension and Disability Insurance Authority of Slovenia (Zavod za pokojninsko in invalidsko zavarovanje Slovenije, ZPIZ). However, the regulations that govern the functioning of these disability commissions do not authorise them to identify and verify occupational diseases. Therefore, disability commissions refuse to perform these tasks.
Such a procedure is regulated in practice only in the case of occupational diseases related to asbestos, because many workers have died as a result of these diseases and it was no longer possible to ignore this fact. This procedure is regulated by the Rules on the determination of occupational diseases due to exposure to asbestos issued in 1997 by the Minister of Health. It determines: those diseases that are classified as occupational diseases due to exposure to asbestos (asbestosis, asbestosis-related lung cancer etc); the work tasks in which these diseases appear (proof of exposure to asbestos dust during the process of work etc); the conditions under which they are classified as occupational diseases (latent period, radiological changes etc); and the body that verifies these occupational diseases. The diagnostic procedure to assess the suspicion of an occupational disease is led by a specialist doctor in occupational medicine. The specialist doctor in charge of the procedure collects all the necessary documentation for the verification of an occupational disease. The verification of the occupational disease is carried out by an interdisciplinary group of experts (specialist doctors in different areas) nominated by the minister of health on the basis of the required documentation. The verification is paid for out of the state budget.
One of the basic causes of current problems is that the detection of occupational diseases is not included in compulsory health insurance. Over the past decade, ministers of health have held the opinion that it is not their task to deal with occupational healthcare, which should be financed by the employers themselves rather than by compulsory health insurance. Hence the employers should pay for the verification of occupational diseases. However, this is arguably not in the employers’ interest because the process of verification provides the evidence that they, rather than workers, are responsible for the occurrence of occupational diseases. Therefore, all costly medical examinations etc must be paid for by the workers themselves, who generally cannot afford it.
Special health and safety insurance not yet introduced
Pursuant to Article 4 of the Law on Health and Safety at Work (LHSW), adopted on 30 June 1999, parliament adopted on 26 November 2003 a Resolution on the National Programme on Health and Safety at Work (RNPHSW) prepared by the government in cooperation with independent experts, employers’ organisations and trade unions. The RNPHSW lays down a development strategy in the field of health and safety at work.
Among other points, the RNPHSW provides that a special compulsory insurance scheme for health and safety at work will be introduced. It will be public, separated from the compulsory health and disability insurance, and financed by employers’ contributions. The RNPHSW also provides for an appropriate regulation of the verification of occupational diseases and its financing. Under the present regulations, the costs that are one of the consequences of accidents at work and occupational diseases form part of the expenditure for the social security of the whole population. In this way, employers are, according to critics, not motivated to improve health and safety at work.
However, after almost two years the RNPHSW is still a 'dead letter' that has not been put into practice yet.
Commentary
The detection of occupational diseases is important, not only because workers with occupational diseases cannot exercise their rights. The detection of such diseases primarily indicates bad working conditions that cause occupational diseases. (Stefan Skledar, Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development)