New framework agreement on occupational safety and health in the hairdressing sector

Coiffure EU and UNI Europa Hair & Beauty have signed a new framework agreement on occupational safety and health. This is a reworked version of the 2012 agreement.

At that time, the European Commission ignored the request of the signatory organizations to transform their agreement into a directive, notably on the grounds that this text went much too far in its protective provisions. Furthermore, the agreement had been rejected by some countries, including France which queried the representativeness of the signatories, and the United Kingdom.

Accordingly, the new agreement, a result of lengthy rewriting work in conjunction with the Commission and the Council, was officialized only after the Brexit vote. This was to avoid giving “another argument to the Brexit camp, which would have once again denounced a text “from Brussels” prohibiting hairdressers from wearing jewellery and high-heeled shoes…” according to the press release by Uni Europa.

The signatories of the new agreement still want the text to be transposed via a directive, in order to make the provisions applicable in all the Member States. But for this to happen, the agreement will have to undergo a “proportionality evaluation” carried out by the Commission.