"The TUTB asked different researchers to look into how the application of selected Directives impacts their national prevention systems. Through this, we can identify good incorporation practice, frame challenges on the content of the Directives, identify failings and weaknesses like the use of very general provisions in the Directives which results in widely differing interpretations and applications.
Monica Breidensjö and her TCO colleagues have evaluated the introduction of the Display Screen Equipment Directive in Sweden, which has some of the EU's tightest regulations in the field. So, while the VDU Directive has not wrought major changes in the Swedish regulations, the authors find that there is still a gap between statutory requirements and change in the workplace, and the role of employees and their unions in that process. Sweden also exemplifies the specific involvement of a trade union - TCO - in developing a concept of eco-labelling for VDUs.
We also publish the joint review of the situation in Germany produced by Gottfried Richenhagen and Gerd von Harten for our Conference in December 1997. The Directive was finally transposed in Germany at the end of 1996 - four years after deadline."

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