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Introduction

The Senior Labour Inspectors Committee (SLIC) is a committee of the European Commission (DG EMPL) with a mandate to give its opinion to the Commission on all problems relating to the enforcement by the Member States of Community law on health and safety at work. The mandate derives from a Commission Decision in 1995, although SLIC had been meeting informally since 1982. The Committee is regulated by Commission Decision 95/319/EC, amended by Decision 2008/823/EC, and Decision 2013/C 43/08.

Objectives of SLIC

(a) Define the commmon principles of labour inspection in the field of health and safety at work and developing methods of assessing the national systems of inspection in relation to those principles

(b) Promote improved knowledge and mutual understanding of the different national legal frameworks, systems, methods and practices of occuaptional safety and health inspection

(c) Exchange information between national labour inspection services about their experiences

(d) Promote a labour inspector exchange programme and the creation of inspector training programmes

(e) Develop a reliable and efficient system of rapid information exchange between labour inspectorates about health and safety issues

(f) Establish cooperation with labour inspectorates outside the EU, and

(g) Study the possible impact of other Community policies on inspection activities relating to health and safety at work and working conditions.

How SLIC works

Plenary SLIC meetings occur twice a year, normally hosted by the Member State holding the current Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Meetings are attended by representatives of the labour inspectorates of the EU Member States, EEA and EFTA States, plus observers from the ILO and EU-OSHA.

In addition to the full Committee, there exist a number of smaller committees mandated by SLIC to examine specific issues or carry out specific tasks, for example Machinery issues (MACHEX), Chemical Safety and health issues (CHEMEX), and campaigning actions. These committees report to the plenary SLIC meetings.

Further reading

Webpage on SLIC from European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs, and Inclusion http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=148&langId=en&intPageId=685

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