Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 89 
4.3 Wellbeing and health status  
Existing concepts of wellbeing cover more aspects of work than working conditions or safety and 
health at workplaces. Eurofound mentions as the most relevant components: income, working time 
arrangements, possibilities for skills development and career advancement, and the degree of individual 
control over work .243 The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe ( UNECE) developed a 
scheme of quality of employment that covers these aspects: safety and ethics of employment, income 
benefits and employment, working hours and balancing working and non- working life, security of 
employment and social protection, social dialogue, skills development and training, workplace 
relationships and work motivation.244  
This chapter focuses on the health and safety aspects of wellbeing, although the OSH aspect is often 
not clearly separable from the above-mentioned aspects, that is, when surveys are intending to identify 
the level of ‘satisfaction at work’. Still, due to its serious impact on all other aspects of working conditions, 
the consequences of insufficient health are regarded as critical: 
‘While OHS is only one substantive working condition, like earnings and job insecurity it is arguably a 
critical one for many workers. In terms of scope and severity, even official data … suggests poor OHS 
is something most workers will experience at some point and many far more frequently.’ 245 
A common methodology to collect data on health status  and wellbeing is self -reporting and self-
assessment of workplace risks, health risks and health problems, absence, job satisfaction and working 
life perspective from a health point of view. The data are in general collected by EU -wide surveys, for 
example, by the EWCS, the Flash Eurobarometer, ESENER or the LFS Ad hoc modules. The 
description of working conditions in the OSH Barometer starts with responses regarding the ‘Overall 
opinion’ on working conditions. This allows insight into the subjective assessment of health risks at 
work and wellbeing.  
 
4.3.1 Satisfaction at work  
In the EWCS of 2015, at EU  level 86% of the workers respond that they are ‘ satisfied’ (60%) or ‘very 
satisfied’ (26%) with their work. Country differences exist but are not striking. The EU  Member States 
with the highest satisfaction rates are Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, Czec hia, Denmark, Belgium 
and Estonia; they range between 93% and 90%. The six countries with the lowest sum of satisfied and 
very satisfied responses are Greece, Croatia, France, Spain, Italy and Latvia; their values range 
between 77% and 82%. 
 
Figure 28: Satisfaction with working conditions in the main paid job – EWCS 2015246