The European Commission has refused to turn hairdressers’ bipartite agreement on health and safety standards into law. Trade unions and the hairdresser sector reached an agreement on legal occupational health and safety standards, which is sent to the European commission to be declared binding. Mockingly referring to the agreement as a ‘ban on high heels’ the European Commission President refused and called the agreement a ‘misfit as far as European hairdressers are concerned’. In a letter to the Financial Times, UNI Europa Hair and Beauty has reacted outraged at the slight, pointing out that the agreement refers to non-slip shoes, not heels, and that the recommendations on avoiding risks of chemicals is a serious issue as hairdressers are the profession with the highest level of skin disease.
English: http://www.etuc.org/a/11608
http://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/meeting-commissioner-andor-refit-23-october-2013-0
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.