Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 118 
6 OSH legislation and OSH infrastructure in the EU 
6.1 Foundation, legislation, compliance and supervision  
The ethical and economic importance of safe and healthy working conditions led to an integration 
of this target in international conventions and agreements; it is also embedded in the treaties of the EU. 
 UN has included ‘Safe and secure work environment’  as an indicator for Goal 8 of their 17 global  
‘Sustainable Development Goals ’ for 2030. Goal 8 aims to ‘Promote sustained, inclusive and 
sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’ .334 It requests in 
its target 8.8 to ‘Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, 
including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.’  
The Preamble to the Constitution 335 of the ILO includes as an objective ‘ … the protection of the 
worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment ...’ . In 2022, the objective of 
a safe and healthy working environment became part of the ‘Declaration on Fundamental Principles and 
Rights at Work’, adding OSH to the existing four basic principles, that is, 1) freedom of association and 
right to collective bargaining, 2) the elimination of all forms o f forced or compulsory labour, 3) the 
effective abolition of child labour , and 4) the elimination of discrimination. Between the year of the 
foundation in 1919 and today, the ILO agreed on more than 40 conventions and recommendations 
addressing OSH, be it either general provisions or provisions for specific groups and sectors or specific 
risks.336  
The EU and its predecessors have enshrined health and safety of workers in their founding treaties. 
Already in 1951, it was stated in Article 3 of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Treaty 
that ‘The institutions of the Community shall, within the limits of their respective powers, in the common 
interest … promote improved working conditions a nd an improved standard of living for the workers in 
each of the industries for which it is responsible …’ . 337  During the development of the European 
institutions and the EU from those years until today, references to working conditions and safety and 
health were always part of the treaties, and also in the latest Treaty of Lisbon from 2009.338 
In Article 151 of the Lisbon Treaty, it is stated that ‘The Union and the Member States, shall have as 
their objectives the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions …’ . The areas of 
such promotion are set out in Article 153, where two bullet points refer to OSH : (a) improvement in 
particular of the working environment to protect workers’ health and safety; (b) working conditions. In 
2017, the European Commission launched an initiative to agree on the ‘European Pilar of Social 
Rights’ (EPSR), comprising 20 key principles guiding the EU in the field of social policy.339 These pillars 
were agreed by the Member States; Principle 10 refers to a ‘Healthy, safe and well-adapted work 
environment and data protection.’ 
These European and international agreements and treaties regard safety and health as essential for 
human development, a basic human right. The main reasoning is to eliminate or reduce as much as 
possible suffering, sickness, disability and death of workers. Often the reasoning refers to intertwined 
objectives, that is, to economic growth (UN), or to reduce the economic burden of incomplete health and 
safety at work, be it the burden for enterprises or the society as a whole, that is,  by ‘Promotion of 
employment’ (Lisbon Treaty) or by ‘Prolongation of the participation in the labour market ’ (EPSR) or 
‘Data protection’ (EPSR).  
The EU treaties form the legal background for the development of specific EU  legislation, related to