Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 114 
Figure 41: Posted workers, receiving and sending countries in the EU315 
 
 
Unambiguously, the data show that all eastern and southern European countries are senders (exception 
Malta). The central European countries Germany, France, Belgium and Austria and the two Nordic 
countries Sweden and Finland are the receivers. Some smaller countries like Denmark, Ireland and 
Luxembourg are exceptions, and the Netherlands ha s an equal amount of sent and received posted 
workers. 
 
5.4 Globalisation and OSH 
Globalisation is an economic development accelerating during the past three decades . Over the 
last decades, production and servi ces have become less and less solely based on national pre-
production or national service suppliers but instead on international supply chains. 316 International 
supply chains require logistics connections between countries and continents, harmonised technic al 
standards, and, as far as possible, common legal rules and agreements, be it for services or materials 
and products. The development of such supply chains divides the necessary work related to a product 
or a service in parts, which might also mean that the OSH risks might not be shared in a fair or equal 
way. A fair divide is most probable between economies of similar levels of development, but a main part 
of globalisation is trade between different levels of economic and technological development.  
A relevant part of outsourcing to less-developed countries took place in sectors with high OSH risks: 
mining, metallurgic processes, hazardous waste, basic chemicals and textiles. At the same time,  EU 
enterprises ‘import’ health and safety risks by producing goods for export, for example, vehicles, 
machines, food or specialty chemicals. A full assessment of the divide of OSH risks needs a case-
by-case description; a variety of different shares of risk is possible: there might take place reverse 
developments, for example, open- pit mining in a country will probably bear much lower risks than 
underground coal mining in the EU, and the risks inside the EU might increase due to (partly illegal) 
import of non- standard or even prohibited products and equipment into the EU (e.g. non  certified 
machines or equipment, cooling agents), and the other way around: EU enterprises might produce and 
export products whose use is proh ibited in the EU (e.g. pesticides). Regarding the globalisation of