The Development of EU Law in the Field of Occupational Health and Safety: A New Way of Thinking

Abstract

Workplace accident and disease prevention have been the focus of law-making activity in European Union (EU) since the creation of the common market. In more than half a century, the EU occupational health and safety (OHS) law grew from nothing into the present legal system, experiencing stages of development through the introduction of important European Community (EC) treaties, for example, the Rome Treaty, Paris Treaty, Maastricht Treaty, Lisbon Treaty and other European-wide legal documents such as the European Social Charter 1961, and seven rounds of EU enlargements for the accession of new member states. With these developments, the approaches adopted in EU OHS law are also involving. In the first few decades, a prescriptive approach was dominant until the introduction of the Framework Directive 89/391, which marked the shift towards a goal-oriented approach. In the later development, the evolution in approach also presents a shift towards the social dialogue approach.