Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

In the hospital and health sector, the social partners have also taken action to improve health and
safety conditions: in 2012 they initiated a common project on the promotion and support for the
implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries.
In 2011 the social partners in the postal services sector launched a survey on slips, trips and falls in
their sector. This work builds upon their 2009 joint declaration on accident prevention and aims at
gaining an overview of the occurrence and consequences of slips, trips and falls in the postal sector,
along with prevention measures. As a follow-up, the social partners organised a technical seminar
in early 2012 to discuss health and safety at work and share good practices.
In early 2011, the telecommunications social partners adopted a joint declaration on good practice
guidelines designed to improve the mental wellbeing of workers within the telecommunications
sector. The guidelines are the result of a joint project entitled Good Work – Good Health, which the
social partners had carried out in 2009 and 2010.
Corporate social responsibility
The social partners in several social dialogue committees have been focusing on corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and its role in a given sector. In the hotel and restaurant sector, for example,
the social partners have regularly monitored an initiative to improve corporate social responsibility
during plenary meetings. Further, the social partners in the gas sector have invested a considerable
amount of work in a survey on CSR policies. A presentation was made on the results of a survey in
September 2011. The survey showed that policies, agreements and reporting on equality and
diversity, health and safety, management of change, skills and CSR itself showed differences in
attention and intensity. Work on CSR did not continue since there was no agreement between the
social partners on how to progress – this mirrors the on-going changes and difficulties in social
dialogue in the gas sector.
In December 2011, the European social partners in the tanning and leather industry kicked off the
third phase of their Social and Environmental Reporting in the Leather Industry initiative, which
began in 2008. In 2010, national social and environmental reports from Bulgaria, France, Germany,
Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United
Kingdom were presented in joint seminars and at a main event organised within the framework of
the project.
The social partners in the postal sector have been working on the environmental activities of
companies and unions in the sector, including aspects of employee engagement and training. Taking
the growing importance of environmental responsibility in the postal sector into account, the social
partners discussed different points of view and collected good practices.
The sectoral social dialogue committee in the local and regional government sector adopted a
joint statement on socially responsible public procurement in June 2011. The social partners
expressed a positive attitude towards the European Commission's guide on socially responsible
public procurement (SRPP) and underlined that the guide should be read in conjunction with the
Lisbon Treaty, which recognises local and regional autonomous governments. Furthermore, the
social partners declared that they will actively promote the guide.
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