The Governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden,

Believing that a good working environment is of fundamental importance for the general welfare,

Believing that a good working environment presupposes healthy and safe working conditions and conditions which otherwise promote well-being and job satisfaction for those actively engaged in work,

Being agreed that the working environment should be developed to keep pace with the technological and social developments that are taking place in society,

Being agreed that a good working environment promotes productivity and development in society,

Recalling the link between the working environment and the external environment, in particular with regard to the handling of chemical substances,

Believing that safety promotion at the workplace is of fundamental importance to the development of a good working environment,

Recalling that the parties in the labour market have great influence on working environment policies in the Nordic countries,

Believing that the working environment authorities play an important role in work to promote the development of the working environment and the implementation of working environment policy,

Believing that Nordic cooperation is of great significance for an effective utilization of available resources and the promotion of a positive development of the working environment,

Being agreed that cooperation efforts should aim at developing, through mutual influence and experience-sharing, increasingly improved working environments in the various countries,

Believing that the Nordic countries should endeavour to eliminate unwarranted differences between the regulations governing working environment conditions in the various countries,

Believing that a common Nordic position on questions concerning the working environment is of value in international cooperation,

Recalling that fruitful cooperation has for a long time existed between the Nordic countries in the field of the working environment,

Referring to the Agreement Concerning Cooperation between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden of 1962, as amended in 1971,

Having concluded an Agreement on 6 March 1982 on a common Nordic labour market,

Being agreed that Nordic cooperation in the field of the working environment should be further expanded, deepened, made more effective and strengthened,

Have agreed as follows:

Article 1

This Agreement is designed to:

Strengthen and develop Nordic cooperation with a view to promoting development towards increasingly improved working environments in all the Nordic countries;

Through the sharing of experience and knowledge, and through coordination, cooperation and the division of labour, promote the rational use of available resources and give mutual support to the development of the working environment in the Nordic countries;

Promote coordination of requirements and regulations affecting the working environment;

Promote a common Nordic position on questions concerning the working environment dealt with in international organizations and in other international contexts.

Account shall be taken of the strong position that the parties on the labour market have traditionally taken with regard to the working environment, and of the fact that questions concerning the working environment are settled to a certain extent by agreement among the parties. In Nordic cooperation consideration shall also be given to each country's right to design its own working environment policies in national cooperation with the parties on the labour market.

Article 2

The Nordic countries shall work for the development of the working environment on the basis of the following principles:

1. Well-developed safety promotion which is closely linked to other activities at the workplace is an important requirement for the creation of healthy and safe working conditions.

2. Company health care should be established to keep pace with national needs and conditions, and should operate in close conjunction with safety promotion at the workplace.

3. The working environment authorities shall support safety promotion at the workplace by providing information and drawing up working environment regulations and ensuring that they are observed.

4. Employers bear the main responsibility for working conditions; however, employees shall have some influence on the shaping of their working environment and be obliged to contribute to the creation of safe and healthy working conditions.

5. Work shall be planned, organized and conducted in such a way as to prevent hazards to employees' physical or psychological health.

6. In the shaping of the working environment, attention shall be paid to ensuring that men and women can participate and develop in their working life under equal conditions.

7. In choosing work methods, processes and equipment, as well as in determining which chemical and other substances shall be used, attention shall always be paid to the possibilities of preventing accidents and other health hazards at work.

8. Individual protective equipment shall be used whenever adequate safety cannot be ensured by other means.

9. Employees shall be given the training, information and instruction necessary for them to carry out their work in a safe manner.

10. Employees shall have the right to refuse to perform work which constitutes an immediate and serious danger to their life or health, without being required to provide compensation or undergo other wrongful consequences.

Article 3

The Nordic countries shall cooperate in developing the working environment to keep pace with social and technological developments in society. In that connection, there shall be close cooperation in each country with the parties on the labour market.

With a view to promoting the development of supervision, the working environment authorities in the Nordic countries shall exchange experience with each other regarding safety and other questions concerning the working environment, as well as methods of supervision and other questions of significance for the attainment of the objectives of working environment policies.

Article 4

The Nordic countries shall continue and expand cooperation to coordinate and adapt their respective working environment regulations to suit those of the other countries.

The objective of cooperation shall be constantly to improve the working environment and to harmonize the regulations at a qualitatively high level.

Cooperation on regulations shall take into account Nordic and other international efforts to avoid obstacles to trade.

Article 5

The Nordic countries shall work to promote Nordic and other international efforts to achieve common standards for testing and control methods, as well as equivalent forms for the approval of products used at work. The objective shall be, as far as possible, to achieve mutual acceptance of test results and products and to develop systems which ensure this.

Article 6

The working environment regulations in the Nordic countries shall, as far as possible, be based on relevant standards. The working environment authorities shall endeavour to exert an active influence on the work of standardization.

With a view to upholding the Nordic view in international work on standardization, the countries shall strive for a coordinated Nordic position.

To the extent that it is appropriate, participation in international standardization projects shall be shared among the countries. The country participating in a project shall collect and convey the points of view of the other countries.

Article 7

The Nordic countries shall work to ensure that consequence analyses carried out in connection with working environment regulations are conducted on a comparable basis.

The working environment authorities shall keep each other informed of work on consequence analyses and share experience and transmit completed analyses to each other.

Article 8

In order to promote the rational development of company health care, there shall be exchanges of experience between the authorities in the various countries that are responsible for or participate in the organization of company health care.

Article 9

Nordic cooperation in research on the working environment shall be promoted and further developed in order, through the exchange of experience and research findings and through the distribution of research tasks, to contribute to the effective utilization of available resources and research results. Particular attention shall be devoted to areas of research which are suited to joint Nordic projects.

The public institutions in the Nordic countries that provide grants for research, training and information in the field of the working environment shall maintain

regular contacts in order to exchange experience and discuss the distribution of support for various fields, as well as to deliberate on the requirements for joint support of pan-Nordic projects.

Article 10

The public institutions in the various countries that plan and provide specialist training in the field of the working environment shall establish continuous contacts with each other. In so far as it is practical, in the light of training requirements and resources in the various countries, joint training courses shall be organized.

Article 11

In order to promote the development of information and documentation, close cooperation shall be established between the public institutions responsible for such activities in the various countries. Particular attention shall be devoted to the possibilities of coordination and joint utilization of the various countries' documentation systems and to the opportunities for those seeking information in the various countries to have ready access to existing documentation.

Article 12

The Nordic countries shall jointly endeavour to compile comparable statistics on industrial injuries and occupational illnesses.

Article 13

In order to realize the objectives of this Convention and otherwise to promote the development of Nordic cooperation on the working environment, the Nordic Council of Ministers (the Ministers for the Working Environment) shall establish Nordic programmes of cooperation in the field of the working environment. The cooperation programmes shall be regularly evaluated and revised in close cooperation with the parties on the labour market.

Article 14

Questions concerning the application of this Convention shall be dealt with by the Nordic Senior Civil Servants' Committee for Working Environment Questions, which is entrusted with the promotion of Nordic coordination and cooperation on questions of the working environment. The Committee is also the preparatory committee of the Nordic Council of Ministers (the Ministers for the Working Environment).

Article 15

The Nordic Council of Ministers (the Ministers for the Working Environment) and the Nordic Senior Civil Servants' Committee for Working Environment Questions shall consult regularly with the parties on the labour market on questions concerning the working environment in the Nordic countries and the application of this Convention.

Article 16

This Convention shall enter into force 30 days after the date on which all the Parties have notified the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Convention has been approved.

The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall notify the other Parties of the receipt of such notifications and of the date of entry into force of the Convention.

Article 17

A Party may denounce the Convention by giving written notice of denunciation to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which shall notify the other Parties of the receipt of such notification and of its contents. A denunciation shall affect only that Party which has effected the denunciation, and shall take effect six months after the date on which the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives notification of the denunciation.

Article 18

The original text of this Convention shall be deposited with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which shall transmit certified copies thereof to the other Parties.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the duly authorized representatives have signed this Convention.

DONE at Stockholm on 29 June 1989 in one copy in the Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish languages, all the texts being equally authentic.

Unless otherwise indicated, the translation of this text into English has been made by the Secretariat of the United Nations, See 1590UNTS27847.

Signing of agreement

Date: Jun 29, 1989