Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 46 
use of modern and powerful ICT  technologies, or a combination of those two forms. Depending on the 
work tasks, ICT infrastructures enable complete independence and separation from the premises of the 
employer. In addition, they open opportunities for new forms of contracts and can go along with blurred 
OSH responsibilities.  
These forms of work often have as a major quality (feature) a less clear employer–employee relation. 
The main structural element of the EU OSH legislation is the dual  role of employers and employees in 
OSH. The employer has the overall respo nsibility for OSH (Framework Directive Article 5: ‘… duty 
to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work …’ ), and the worker the 
obligation to contribute (Framework Directive Article 13 … ‘to take care as far as possible of his own 
safety and health and that of other persons affected by his acts or omissions …’). Where OSH legislation 
has to be applied in less clear employer–employee relations, for example, in the case of self-employed, 
the relevance and impact of ‘dyadic’ OSH regulations seem to fade.  
Not only the EU is struggling with this development, but Australia also introduced the legal identity of a 
PCBU: ‘Significantly, the primary duty of care will shift from the “ employer” to the broader “person 
conducting a business or undertaking” (PCBU) and duties previously owed to “employees” will now 
apply to all workers.’64 
 
 
 
During the past decades , and especially after 1990,  a much greater variety of such contractual 
relations has emerged. However, in 2019 the conventional employment contract (part- or full-time) still 
accounts for around 86% of the workforce ( EU27), they are employees. Seventeen per cent  of these 
employed persons have a part-time contract, 13% of the employees have a temporary contract, or both 
combined. Nine per cent  are self-employed without employees. The remaining 4% are self -employed 
with employees (empl oyers) and 1% are contributing family workers. The number of self -employed in 
agriculture halved between 2005 and 2019, which is the biggest factor in the reduction of contributing 
family workers and the stagnation of the number of self-employed. 
 
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