EU scaffold rules halted

A major initiative to improve European standards of scaffolding safety has been stopped by Brussels bureaucracy. After two years of detailed work on a proposed scaffolding directive, the European Commission's legal department has halted the project.

It objected to the concept of a separate directive on work equipment provided for temporary work at height. It now wants the scaffolding proposals to be entirely recast as an amendment to the existing Use of Work Equipment Directive (UWED).

Neil Murray, head of the UK Health and Safety Executive's construction policy section, commented: "We saw the proposal as a valuable means of improving worker safety across Europe. The HSE was very pleased with the form the directive was taking.

"Indeed, we had hoped to make significant ground with the proposal during the UK presidency and were extremely disappointed to discover that all our efforts had been frustrated at the last hurdle."

Murray added: "The UK has worked hard and successfully to influence the structure and content of the proposals. Our aim was to shape the originally prescriptive and bureaucratic text so that it reflected better the structure and approach of the UK's Construction Health, Safety, and Welfare Regulations 1996 which we believe offer a workable hierarchy of protection to prevent falls from heights."

A draft of the scaffolding directive was submitted to the EC's legal department for comment earlier this year. The department then objected to the idea of a separate directive. In the interim there has been no formal agreement on how to proceed.

Outlining the latest position, the HSE chief commented: "It seems likely, given the authority of the legal service within the Commission, that the proposal will be developed as an amendment to UWED."

But he said there are no indications from Brussels on the timetable for such action. The HSE's main concern now would be to ensure that the proposals on scaffolding are retained in their entirety in any future regulations.

George Henderson, national secretary of the TGWU, said this week that his union would be seeking the assistance of its counterparts in Austria and Germany to progress a scaffolding directive during the course of those countries' presidencies of the EU over the next year.