EN - Siôn Simon (S&D;, UK): "We expect the same obligations in terms of outcomes for small employers as for larger employers, but that's not always clear in the rhetoric of the right-wing groups in here" - EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2014-2020 - EMPL Committee on Employment and Social Affairs - 16.10.2014 - Brussels. Siôn Simon: "Just on the question of reducing the burden on small and micro-businesses: everybody wants to reduce the bureaucratic burden when it's a non necessary bureaucratic burden on smaller businesses, for sure. Perhaps the same form-filling is not needed for a big multinational as for a 2-person family business. However, the RIGHTS and the health and the safety of the people who work in a 1- or 2- or 3-person family business HAVE to be EXACTLY the same as the people who work in a big multinational corporation. And when you speak to the representative organisations of small businesses they say that very clearly, they say: "We expect the same obligations in terms of outcomes for small employers as for larger employers, but that's not always clear in the rhetoric of the right-wing groups in here, when we talk about these issues. So it should be absolutely clear on the record and not subject to any ambiguity. You can't have 2 different types of rights to be safe and have your health respected at work, it has to be absolutely the same for everybody, everywhere, and that can be done while lowering the bureaucratic burden where appropriate. And quickly on other things, Anthea McIntyre (ECR, UK) said: "Why do we need to come back to asbestos, we've had our own initiative report on it ?" ; but this is supposed to be a strategy, it's supposed to be an encompassing, overarching, multi-annual strategy, in which case, on what basis do we leave out something really big and important that still kills thousands of people every year ?" Anthea McIntyre (ECR, UK), cuts Siôn Simon off. Siôn Simon: "But why do we leave it out from anywhere? If it's important, we need to put it in, and if thousand of people are dying all the time, I think we need to keep saying it ; I think we need an asbestos register, we need a lot more training, there's an awful lot more that should be done, and if we don't talk about it and are not explicit about it, and if not here, then who is and where? And similarly on carcinogens, where has that gone from this overarching and important piece of work? And finally, just returning to the questions of smaller businesses, let's not forget that for instance, in the construction sector, where health and safety issues are of paramount importance, and where again, thousands of people are killed in Europe every year still now, there are some huge, very, very rich and profitable multinational players in the construction sector, but almost no worker is directly employed by those firms, almost every worker is employed in the construction sector by subcontracted SMEs. And it would be absolutely wrong if those subcontractors, if those subcontracted workers were treated entirely as though they are the workers of small businesses when actually they are the workforce of huge, global, multinational concerns, generating billions of dollars and euros every year through their work." © Frédérick Moulin 2014 - EU2014 - All rights reserved.

• published: 19 Oct 2014
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