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Council Directive 92/58/EEC of 24 June 1992 on the minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signs at work (ninth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16 (1) of Directive 89/391/EEC)

EU Directive 1992/58 · Adopted 24 June 1992 · Extends to United Kingdom

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Council Directive 92/58/EEC

of 24 June 1992

on the minimum requirements for the provision of safety and/or health signs at work (ninth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16 (1) of Directive 89/391/EEC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 118 a thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commissionf1, submitted following consultation of the Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work,

In cooperation with the European Parliamentf2,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committeef3,

Whereas Article 118 a of the Treaty provides that the Council must adopt, by means of directives, minimum requirements to encourage improvements, especially in the working environment, as regards the health and safety of workers;

Whereas, under that Article, such directives must avoid imposing administrative, financial and legal constraints in a way which would hold back the creation and development of small and medium-sized undertakings;

Whereas the Commission communication on its programme concerning safety, hygiene and health at workf4 provides for a revision and extension of the scope of Council Directive 77/576/EEC of 25 July 1977 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the provision of safety signs at places at workf5;

Whereas, in its Resolution of 21 December 1987 on safety, hygiene, and health at workf6, the Council took note of the Commission's intention of submitting to it within a short period of time a proposal for revising and extending the abovementioned Directive;

Whereas Directive 77/576/EEC should be replaced by this Directive for the sake of consistency and clarity;

Whereas this Directive is an individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16 (l)of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at workf7; wheres the provisions of Directive 89/391/EEC therefore apply in full to the provision of safety and health signs at work, without prejudice to more stringent and/or specific provisions contained in this Directive;

Whereas existing Community rules relate mainly to safety signs and the marking of dangerous obstacles and locations, and are therefore restricted to a limited number of types of signs;

Whereas the effect of this restriction is that some hazards are not appropriately marked; whereas new types of signs should therefore be introduced in order to enable employers and workers to identify and avoid risks to safety and/or health at work;

Whereas safety and/or health signs must be provided where hazards cannot be adequately reduced by techniques for collective protection or by measures, methods or procedures used in the organization of work;

Whereas the many differences between the safety and/or health signs currently in use in the Member States lead to uncertainty, and this may become more widespread with the free movement of workers within the internal market;

Whereas the use of standardized signs at work is, in general, likely to reduce the hazards which may arise from linguistic and cultural differences between workers;

Whereas this Directive constitutes a tangible step towards developing the social dimension of the internal market;

Whereas, pursuant to Decision 74/325/EECf8, as last amended by the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal, the Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work is to be consulted by the Commission on the drafting of proposals in this field,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Annotations to the whole text

Footnotes

f1

OJ No C 53, 28.2.1991, p. 46 and OJ No C 279, 26.10.1991, p. 13.

f2

OJ No C 240, 16.9.1991, p. 102 and OJ No C 150, 15.6.1992.

f3

OJ No C 159, 17.6.1991, p. 9.

f4

OJ No C 28, 3.2.1988, p. 3.

f5

OJ No L 229, 7.9.1977, p. 12. Last amended by Commission Directive 79/640/EEC. (OJ No L 183, 19.7.1979, p. 11.).

f6

OJ No C 28, 3.2.1989, p. 1.

f7

OJ No L 183, 29.6.1989, p. 1.

f8

OJ No L 185, 9.7.1974, p. 15.

Contents

  1. GENERAL PROVISIONS
  2. 1Object
  3. 2Definitions
  4. EMPLOYERS’ OBLIGATIONS
  5. 3General rules
  6. 4Safety and/or health signs used for the first time
  7. 5Safety and/or health signs already in use
  8. 6Exemptions
  9. 7Information and instruction for workers
  10. 8Consultation of workers and workers' participation
  11. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
  12. 9Amendments to the Annexes
  13. 9aExercise of the delegation
  14. 9bUrgency procedure
  15. 10Article 10
  16. 11Final provisions
  17. 12Article 12
  18. Annex I: GENERAL MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING SAFETY AND/OR HEALTH SIGNS AT WORK
  19. Preliminary remarks
  20. 1.1Division 1.1
  21. 1.2Division 1.2
  22. 1.3Division 1.3
  23. Types of signs
  24. Permanent signs
  25. 2.1.1Permanent signboards must be used for signs relating to prohibitions, warnings and mandatory requirements and the location and identification of emergency escape routes and first-aid facilities.
  26. 2.1.2Division 2.1.2
  27. 2.1.3Division 2.1.3
  28. 2.1.4Division 2.1.4
  29. Occasional signs
  30. 2.2.1Division 2.2.1
  31. 2.2.2Division 2.2.2
  32. Interchanging and combining signs
  33. 3.1Division 3.1
  34. 3.2Division 3.2
  35. 4Division 4
  36. 5Division 5
  37. 5.1Division 5.1
  38. 5.1.1Division 5.1.1
  39. 5.1.2Division 5.1.2
  40. 5.1.3Division 5.1.3
  41. 5.1.4Division 5.1.4
  42. 5.1.5Division 5.1.5
  43. 5.2Division 5.2
  44. 6Division 6
  45. 7Division 7
  46. 8Division 8
  47. 9Division 9
  48. 10Division 10
  49. 11Division 11
  50. 12Division 12
  51. Annex II: MINIUM GENERAL REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING SIGNBOARDS
  52. Intrinsic features
  53. 1.1Division 1.1
  54. 1.2Division 1.2
  55. 1.3Division 1.3
  56. 1.4Division 1.4
  57. 1.5Division 1.5
  58. Conditions of use
  59. 2.1Signboards are in principle to be installed at a suitable height and in a position appropriate to the line of sight, taking account of any obstacles, either at the access point to an area in the case of a general hazard, or in the immediate vicinity of a specific hazard or object and in a well-lit and easily accessible and visible location.
  60. 2.2Division 2.2
  61. Signboards to be used
  62. 3.1Prohibitory signs
  63. 3.2Warning signs
  64. 3.3Mandatory signs
  65. 3.4Emergency escape or first-aid signs
  66. 3.5Fire-fighting signs
  67. Annex III: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS GOVERNING SIGNS ON CONTAINERS AND PIPES
  68. 1Containers used at work for chemical substances or mixtures classified as hazardous according to the criteria for any physical or health hazard class in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, and containers used for the storage of such hazardous substances or mixtures, together with the visible pipes containing or transporting such hazardous substances and mixtures, must be labelled with the relevant hazard pictograms in accordance with that Regulation.
  69. 2Signs must be mounted as follows:
  70. 3Division 3
  71. 4Division 4
  72. 5Areas, rooms or enclosures used for the storage of significant quantities of hazardous substances or mixtures must be indicated by a suitable warning sign taken from section 3.2 of Annex II, or marked as provided in section 1 of Annex III, unless the labelling of the individual packages or containers is adequate for this purpose, taking into account Annex II, point 1.5 with regard to dimensions.
  73. Annex IV: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATION OF FIRE-FIGHTING EQUIPMENT
  74. 1Preliminary remark
  75. 2Division 2
  76. 3Division 3
  77. 4Division 4
  78. Annex V: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS GOVERNING SIGNS USED FOR OBSTACLES AND DANGEROUS LOCATIONS, AND FOR MARKING TRAFFIC ROUTES
  79. Signs for obstacles and dangerous locations
  80. 1.1Division 1.1
  81. 1.2Division 1.2
  82. 1.3Division 1.3
  83. 1.4Example:
  84. Marking of traffic routes
  85. 2.1Division 2.1
  86. 2.2Division 2.2
  87. 2.3Division 2.3
  88. Annex VI: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR ILLUMINATED SIGNS
  89. Intrinsic features
  90. 1.1Division 1.1
  91. 1.2Division 1.2
  92. 1.3Division 1.3
  93. 1.4Division 1.4
  94. Specific rules governing use
  95. 2.1If a device can emit both continuous and intermittent signs, the intermittent sign should be used to indicate a higher level of danger or a more urgent need for the requested/imposed intervention or action than is indicated by the continuous sign.
  96. 2.2Division 2.2
  97. 2.3Division 2.3
  98. Annex VII: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR ACOUSTIC SIGNS
  99. Intrinsic features
  100. 1.1Acoustic signals must:
  101. 1.2Division 1.2
  102. 2Code
  103. Annex VIII: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR VERBAL COMMUNICATION
  104. Intrinsic features
  105. 1.1Division 1.1
  106. 1.2Division 1.2
  107. 1.3Division 1.3
  108. Specific rules governing use
  109. 2.1Division 2.1
  110. 2.2If verbal communication is used instead of — or together with — gestures, code words should be used such as:
  111. Annex IX: MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR HAND SIGNALS
  112. 1Features
  113. Specific rules governing use
  114. 2.1Division 2.1
  115. 2.2Division 2.2
  116. 2.3Division 2.3
  117. 2.4Division 2.4
  118. 2.5Division 2.5
  119. 2.6Accessories:
  120. 3Coded signals to be used
  121. Preliminary remark: