Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 117 
8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and 
human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour , 
including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms  
8.8 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 WHO is following a global approach towards occupational health. They summarised their base of 
evidence on global working conditions in some key facts:332 
• In many countries more than half of workers are employed in the informal s ector with no social 
protection for seeking health care and lack of regulatory enforcement of occupational health and 
safety standards. 
• Occupational health services to advise employers on improving working conditions and 
monitoring the health of workers cover mostly big companies in the formal sector and more than 
85% of workers in small enterprises, informal sector, agriculture and migrants worldwide do not 
have any occupational health coverage. 
• Work-related health problems result in an economic loss of 4–6% of GDP for most countries. 
The basic health services to prevent occupational and work -related diseases cost on average 
between US$ 18 and US$ 60 (purchasing power parity) per worker. 
• About 70% of workers do not have any insurance to compensate them in case of occupational 
diseases and injuries. 
• Research has demonstrated that workplace health initiatives can help reduce sick leave 
absenteeism by 27% and health-care costs for companies by 26%. 
Based on this evidence, the WHO Global Assembly agreed on a ‘Worker health global plan of action’ in 
2007333 (updated 2013) that included targets like better prevention at workplaces , that is, Objective 2: 
to protect and promote health at the workplace. The WHO has worked together with the ILO to estimate 
the burden of diseases from work and published the ‘WHO/ILO joint estimates of the work -related 
burden of disease and injury’.  
When looking at the work of global institutions during the past two to three decades — and for the ILO 
also much further back  — many import ant 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.  
 
OSH Barometer – OSH Infrastructure – International organisations and international programmes  
https://visualisation.osha.europa.eu/osh-barometer/osh-infrastructure/international-organisations 
https://visualisation.osha.europa.eu/osh-barometer/osh-infrastructure/international-programmes 
ESENER – Data visualisation  
https://visualisation.osha.europa.eu/esener/en/survey/datavisualisation/2019