Health and safety at work is everybody’s business
Practical guidance for employers
This guidance document complements the European Commission's Communication "Safer and Healthier Work for All – Modernisation of EU Occupational Safety and Health legislation and policy".
It is a practical guide for employers, to be adapted to national circumstances, providing an overview of the main obligations and existing tools and resources which can help to put those obligations in practice.
Its objective is to assist effective and efficient implementation of the occupational safety and health framework. A brief word on the law: at the EU level, the legislation sets minimum requirements throughout the EU and comprises the Framework Directive 89/391/EEC and more than 25 related directives on various subjects. EU directives have to be transposed into national law and implemented by the Member States.
Employers will therefore first of all need to look at the national legislation; firstly, it contains the relevant (transposed) EU provisions, and secondly, it may contain important additional requirements that employers may need to comply with. Member States are indeed allowed to adopt more stringent protective measures than those foreseen in the EU directives. It is also the national competent authorities, usually the labour inspectorates, who are primarily responsible for enforcing the national provisions transposing the directive.
European Commission 2016