Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 15 
distribution and the increased number of workers doing their job in private homes (home care, domestic 
work, etc.), plus the rapid spread of remote of fice work in 2020 due to the COVID -19 pandemic. One 
major difficulty for risk prevention is to determine how far safety and health at these workplaces might 
deviate from the OSH requirements of a conventional workplace in an office building or an industrial 
plant, regarding topics like ergonomic and safe equipment, space, ventilation, daylight, electrical and 
fire safety, emergency procedures and so on.  
Globalisation 
Over the last decades, production and services have become less and less sole ly based on national  
(pre-)products or service suppliers and instead on international supply chains. Digitalisation facilitates 
the globalisation of services  that do not require personal presence. International supply chain s 
require logistics connections between countries and continents, harmonised technical standards, and, 
as far as possibl e, common legal rules, standards and agreements, be they 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 OSH risks might not be shared in a fair or equal 
way.  
In industry, a relevant part of outsourcing to less-developed countries took place in sectors with high 
OSH risks: mining, metallurgic processes, treatment of hazardous waste, basic chemicals and textiles. 
At the same time, EU enterprises ‘import’ risks by producing goods for export (e.g. vehicles, machines, 
food, specialty chemicals). A full assessment of the division of OSH risks would require a case-by-case 
description.  
When looking at the work of global institutions during the past two to three decades, many important 
agreements, conventions, government actions and global business  programmes have been 
negotiated, agreed and issued. The objectives and necessary measures at a global level have been 
made much more concrete by these efforts. OSH and working conditions are on the agenda of these 
organisations, and general and concrete targets and indicators have been set. The task is the 
implementation of these principles and programmes in every region and country of the world in a 
way that it reaches all workplaces.  
Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic 
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 required exceptional measures and quick  reactions 
on many unanticipated challenges for OSH. The infrastructures — staff, material, measures — were to 
a large extent not available or prepared to cope with an acute pandemic of that size. EU-OSHA reacted 
with several guidance documents for employers and workers, that is, the ‘COVID -19: Guidance for the 
workplace’ and the guidance ‘COVID -19: Back to the workplace - Adapting workplaces and protecting 
workers’. 
In the EU OSH Strategic Framework 2021 to 2027, the impact of a pandemic or similar threat was 
addressed by one overall objective, namely ‘Increasing preparedness –  responding rapidly to threats’. 
The strategy aims at employing the preventive experience gathered during the pandemic to prepare for 
potential future similar threats. Enterprises, sector organisations and health institutions have developed 
proven workplace and sector -specific risk assessments and prevention measures ; there is 
experience with test procedures and timelines for quarantine and return- to-work and use of personal 
protective equipment. A major indirect impact on working conditions is the strongly increased share of 
remote work from home.  
In this policy area, important decisions have been made that are relevant for potential future pandemics 
of a similar kind, for example, the definition of essential work  that needs to be continued despite a