Health & Safety at Work
Workers can be exposed to various different risks, including environmental risks, at the workplace. It is known that accidents and health problems related to working conditions have a significant social and economic impact, and workers’ protection has been a constant area of concern in the EU. The occupational health and safety of workers is therefore one of the most advanced social policies of the European Union. Improving the working conditions of European workers has been a central concern for the EU institutions over the past 60 years. The EU has built a solid body of legislation and has developed policy tools and programmes dedicated to improving the level of protection of workers’ safety and health.
Milieu’s services in the area of occupational health and safety include:
- Conformity checking of the transposition of health and safety directives across the EU Member States and for candidate countries
- Analysis and review of the EU occupational health and safety legislation and policy framework
- Providing impact assessment on different policy options that affect the health and safety legislation
Some examples of Milieu’s experience in the area of worker’s health and safety include:
Study on the occupational health and safety risks for the most vulnerable workers, European Parliament, 2011: The aim of this study is to understand better the occupational health and safety risks for the most vulnerable workers and the implications and interactions of these risks, in order to identify the need for possible EU policy actions. More info...
Framework contract for external expertise on regulatory and policy issues in the field of Health and Safety at Work, European Parliament, 2010–2011 (renewable for four years): Under this framework contract, and based on specific requests, Milieu provides external expertise on regulatory and policy issues in the field of health and safety at work to the European Parliament, and in particular, our team assists the Employment Committee in better law and policy making.
Study on the impacts of adding reprotoxins under the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive 2004/37/EC, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, 2010-2012: Milieu is gathering evidence on workers’ exposure to reprotoxic substances occurs in occupational settings; in order to evaluate the evidence and determine whether there is a need to include such substances in the scope of Directive 2004/37/EC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work. The study includes the analysis of different policy options, including a possible amendment of Directive 2004/37/EC, and evaluates the impact of the different scenarios in terms of health, environment, and from the social and economic perspective. More info...
Conformity analysis of the transposal of Directive 89/391/EEC on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work and other related directives into national law, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, 2008: Milieu’s team conducted an analysis of the transposition of the EU health and safety directives into the national law of Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
