Chemical Safety: World's Firms And Unions To Cooperate

Chemical sector unions and companies are to cooperate worldwide on the continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental protection.

Agreement on this was reached following talks in Geneva last week between worker representatives coordinated by the 20-million-strong International Confederation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Unions (ICEM) and employers grouped within the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA).

Specifically, the joint efforts will focus on the chemical industry's Responsible Care programme. This voluntary initiative aims at continuous improvement of health, safety and environmental standards. It stresses the need to communicate the results to stakeholders and the public.

Governments were also represented at the Geneva meeting, which was organised by the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The meeting's conclusions emphasise that "there is a dialogue in progress which will be formalised and continued on the meaningful involvement of workers and their representatives on the subject of Responsible Care between ICCA and ICEM."

Similarly, "employers should involve fully the workers and their representatives in local Responsible Care activities and brief them and their representatives at the national level in matters such as the status of implementation."

Responsible Care has had "positive results" and "there is potential, with greater involvement of stakeholders, to go further." Its goals "should be embraced by all chemical firms and by all those working in the industry."

But Responsible Care must not just deliver. It must be seen to deliver. "Performance indicators and verification procedures" are therefore "critical for the credibility of the initiative."

Crucially, the companies, governments and unions recognised that Responsible Care is no substitute for regulation. Rather, "the regulatory framework and voluntary initiatives should be mutually supportive."

Regulation should ensure that "minimum standards are set and met." This entails "legally authorised inspections", coupled with "support programmes" and "sanctions". But the less prescriptive "goal-setting" regulations also require "suitable government oversight".

Voluntary initiatives, on the other hand, should "in particular aim at achieving higher levels of performance than those possible through legislation alone." They should "provide encouragement and mechanisms for bringing all plants and firms up to acceptable performance levels", and their goals "should not be static but should be based on the principle of continuous improvement."

The emphasis is on the "development and diffusion of best practices" both between companies and within each corporation. Notably, multinationals should apply their corporate health, safety and environment standards worldwide. There should also be "provision of expertise to chemical industries in developing and transitional countries", including via the ILO and other UN agencies.

The chemical industry's trade associations and the bigger companies in the sector should help small and medium-size businesses to improve their health, safety and environment performance.

"The development and diffusion of best practices will be rendered more effective to the extent that workers and their representatives play an effective role in the voluntary initiatives," the employers, governments and unions agreed.

"Internationally comparable systems of performance should be developed and maintained to track chemical enterprises' health, safety and environment performance," they insisted. "Workers and their representatives should be involved in the development and use of such systems."

Managers and workers alike need training if Responsible Care is to succeed. The Geneva conclusions set out these training requirements in some detail. Again, "workers and their representatives should have a voice and influence in determining the nature and scope of the health, safety and environment-related information and training provided to them in the context of voluntary initiatives."

Chairing the workers' group in the committee that drew up the conclusions was ICEM Vice-President Fred Higgs (for a summary of his and the employers' comments, see ICEM UPDATE 9-1999).

Robert Wages, Vice-President of the ICEM-affiliated American industrial union PACE, chaired the workers' group on the resolutions committee. Coordinating the workers' representatives throughout the week-long meeting were the ICEM's Deputy General Secretary Peter Michalzik and Health, Safety and Environment Officer Reg Green.

Global union-employer cooperation on Responsible Care is now set to move forward rapidly. Within the next two months, the ICEM will be addressing the governing bodies both of the ICCA and of the European-level chemical producers' federation CEFIC on this issue.