Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 140 
Some important questions remain at the end of such a report:  
• The quality of statistics and surveys fades the  more irregular are the working conditions 
being studied. Which research methods are adequate for a clearer and more reliable evidence 
base on these working conditions? It might require research methods different from those used 
today, for example, more investigative case studies; i t might also be helpful to evaluate the 
existing national working conditions surveys or statistics under this aspect.  
• Fading employer–employee relations. There are special research efforts necessary to study 
the application of OSH regulations of work with weak or no employer –employee relations, for 
example, for the self-employed and new forms of employment.  
• Surveys usually suffer a participation bias, for example, for the migrant workforce. The 
low participation rate of migrants can contribute to a particular underestimation regarding their 
often unfavourable working conditions.  
• Workers in manual occupations report better health than administrative workers but less 
expectations to do the job until being 60 years old . What are the reasons behind this? Is it 
the healthy worker effect, strong occupation- related differences regarding the perception of 
health and the expression of health problems? 502,503 
• High work intensity is a major cause for low wellbeing and high psychosocial risks. Survey data 
suggest that work intensification stopped after 2005 . What might be the reasons? Are the 
current indicators not specific enough to measure developments of work intensity? Has since 
then the major burden of intensification been put on other types of workers, for example, 
subcontracted or self-employed, temporary and seasonal workers, or on workers in the global 
supply chain?  
• How much evidence is there that dangerous work has been increasingly contracted out to 
small and medium -size enterprises and the self- employed? Are there sufficiently detailed 
data on whether a larger share of service and client -related work at atypical times or work 
requiring long working hours has been taken over by self-employed or subcontractors? 
• The influence of enterprise size is often difficult to explain. In several aspects , the SMEs 
perform better, and in other important aspects worse. What might be the reason for this?  
• How is it possible to overcome the ‘prevention gap’ that in general exists between mobile 
and stationary workplaces ? Can the solutions be technical or must there be organisational 
and legal measures, for example, a limitation of the prolonged use of ergonomically inadequate 
equipment like mobile phones? 
• Impact of international and global supply chains on OSH: Does it improve or worsen the 
working conditions in the EU? Research could try to estimate the risk-reducing impact of the 
shift of some high -risk productions to enterprises outside the EU, for example, mining, base 
chemicals, recycling and so on (export of risks), and to estimate the OSH impact of EU export 
production, for example, vehicles, specialty chemicals, machines for risks at work inside the EU 
(import of risks). 
• It would also be a big step forward if research could achieve an agreed standard value or a 
standard range (as reliable as possible) for the attributable fraction of work  to widespread 
diseases, that is, cardiovascular diseases, mental and behavioural disorders, musculoskeletal 
diseases and cancer.  
• Compliance with and impact of legislation. Currently, there are data on the percentage of 
enterprises with a risk assessment but very limited information about the quality of these risk 
assessments and of implemented risk management and reduction measures. Previous 
studies indicate that in many cases the risk assessment is conducted by an enterprise just to