Workplace Health and Safety Basics Course (EU): Lessons 2026

Lesson 1: Why OSH matters and how EU law works

Occupational safety and health (OSH) is about protecting people from harm caused by their work. Good OSH prevents injuries, illness and deaths.

Why it matters

• Eurostat reports that in 2024 there were 3,367 fatal accidents at work in the EU and about 2.78 million non-fatal accidents that caused at least 4 calendar days off work.
• Close to a quarter (23.0%) of fatal accidents in 2024 were in construction. Transport and storage, manufacturing, and agriculture, forestry and fishing came next.
• EU-OSHA estimates that work-related injuries and diseases cost society the equivalent of 3.3% of EU GDP, and studies it cites found a return of about 2.2 euros for every euro invested in OSH.

How EU law works

The EU sets common rules for safety at work mainly through directives. A directive is binding on the Member States: each Member State must transpose it into national law by a set deadline. Member States are free to adopt stricter rules to protect workers. This is why the details of safety law can differ from one EU country to another.

In practice, your employer must follow your national law. The Framework Directive requires Member States to ensure adequate controls and supervision, usually through national authorities such as labour inspectorates.

The Framework Directive 89/391/EEC

The main EU law on OSH is Council Directive 89/391/EEC, called the Framework Directive. It was adopted on 12 June 1989, and Member States had to apply it by 31 December 1992. It sets general principles for preventing work accidents and diseases, and for informing, consulting and training workers.

• It covers all sectors, public and private: industry, farming, shops, offices, services, education, culture and leisure.
• It does not apply only where certain public service work, such as the armed forces, the police or some civil protection tasks, inevitably conflicts with it. Even then, safety and health must be protected as far as possible.
• A worker is any person employed by an employer, including trainees and apprentices (domestic servants are excluded).
• Prevention means all the steps taken or planned at all stages of work to prevent or reduce occupational risks.

The individual directives

Many more specific directives are based on the Framework Directive. Examples cover personal protective equipment (89/656/EEC), display screen equipment (90/270/EEC), safety signs (92/58/EEC), chemical agents (98/24/EC), noise (2003/10/EC), pregnant workers (92/85/EEC) and young workers (94/33/EC).

The Framework Directive still applies in full to all these areas. Where an individual directive has stricter or more specific rules, those rules prevail.

Who helps

EU-OSHA is the European Union information agency for OSH. It publishes guidance and runs the free online risk assessment tool OiRA. One priority of the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work 2021–2027 is improving the prevention of work-related accidents and diseases, working towards a "Vision Zero" approach to work-related deaths.

Themenquiz 1: Why OSH matters and how EU law works

Lesson 2: What employers must do

Under Article 5 of the Framework Directive, the employer has a duty to ensure workers' safety and health in every aspect related to the work. Using outside experts does not take this responsibility away. Workers have duties too, but these do not affect the principle of the employer's responsibility.

The general principles of prevention

Article 6 lists nine principles that guide every safety decision:

1. Avoid risks.
2. Evaluate the risks that cannot be avoided.
3. Combat risks at source (deal with the cause, for example fix a leak instead of mopping every hour).
4. Adapt the work to the individual, for example the design of workstations, equipment and work methods, and reduce monotonous work.
5. Adapt to technical progress.
6. Replace the dangerous with the non-dangerous or less dangerous (substitution).
7. Develop a coherent overall prevention policy covering technology, work organisation, working conditions, social relationships and the working environment.
8. Give collective protective measures priority over individual measures.
9. Give workers appropriate instructions.

So a guardrail that protects everyone comes before a harness for each person. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is used when risks cannot be avoided or limited enough by collective or organisational measures. The employer must provide PPE free of charge, keep it in good working order and hygienic, and train workers to use it.

Other general duties

• Assess the risks, including when choosing equipment and chemicals and when fitting out workplaces (Lesson 4).
• Think about each worker's capabilities when giving them tasks.
• Consult workers on the planning and introduction of new technologies.
• Let only workers with adequate instructions enter areas with serious and specific danger.
• Where several employers share a workplace, they must cooperate, coordinate their prevention work and inform each other and their workers about risks.
• Safety and health measures may in no circumstances involve workers in financial cost.

Prevention services and emergencies

The employer must designate one or more competent workers for protection and prevention work. If there is nobody competent in-house, the employer must enlist competent external services or persons. The employer must also arrange first aid, firefighting and evacuation, name the workers who carry these out, and arrange contact with outside emergency services.

Information, consultation and training

Workers from outside firms, such as agency cleaners or contractors, must also have received appropriate instructions about the risks at the site where they work.

Particularly sensitive risk groups, such as young workers and pregnant workers, must be protected against the dangers that specifically affect them.

Themenquiz 2: Employer duties: prevention and training

Lesson 3: Your duties and rights as a worker

Safety is a shared effort. Article 13 of the Framework Directive says each worker must take care, as far as possible, of their own safety and health and that of others affected by their acts or omissions at work, in line with their training and instructions.

Your duties

• Use machinery, tools, dangerous substances, transport equipment and other work equipment correctly.
• Use the PPE you are given correctly and return it to its proper place after use.
• Do not disconnect, change or remove safety devices (such as machine guards), and use them correctly.
• Immediately inform your employer or the designated safety workers of any situation you think is a serious and immediate danger, and of any shortcomings in protection.
• Cooperate with your employer and safety staff so that tasks set by the authorities can be done and the workplace is safe.

If a worker breaks a rule, the employer does not stop being responsible. Worker duties do not affect the principle of the employer's responsibility.

Your rights in serious and imminent danger

• In serious, imminent and unavoidable danger you may stop work and go immediately to a place of safety.
• You must not be put at a disadvantage for leaving, and must be protected against harmful and unjustified consequences.
• Your employer must not ask you to go back while the serious and imminent danger remains, except in exceptional, duly justified cases.
• If you cannot reach your supervisor, you may take suitable steps, using your knowledge and the equipment available, to avoid the consequences. You are protected unless you acted carelessly or negligently.

Your other rights

• To have safety representatives who can ask the employer to act and make proposals to reduce hazards.
• Not to be disadvantaged for taking part in safety and health activities.
• To appeal to the competent authority, such as the labour inspectorate, if you think the employer's measures are not good enough.
• To receive health surveillance at regular intervals if you wish, under your national system.

Themenquiz 3: Worker duties and rights

Lesson 4: Risk assessment step by step

Every employer must have an assessment of the risks to safety and health at work (Articles 6 and 9 of the Framework Directive). It is the basis for all other safety measures.

Hazard and risk

• A hazard is something at work that has the potential to cause harm, such as a wet floor, a hot surface, noise or a chemical.
• A risk depends on how likely harm is and how serious it would be (the probability and severity of possible harm).

Die Schritte

There are no fixed EU rules on exactly how to do a risk assessment; national legislation applies. EU-OSHA suggests a stepwise approach that works well for most businesses, especially small ones. Its OiRA tools follow these steps:

1. Identify hazards and those at risk. Look at all tasks, including those done outside normal hours such as cleaning. Note who may be harmed, including groups at particular risk such as young or pregnant workers.
2. Evaluate and prioritise risks. Estimate each risk from the severity and probability of harm, and put the risks in order.
3. Decide on preventive action and put it in place. First ask: can this risk be eliminated? If not, reduce it, following the principles of prevention.
4. Monitor and review. Check that the measures work, and review the assessment at regular intervals so it stays up to date.

Review the assessment whenever things change, for example new equipment, new procedures or after an accident or near miss.

A simple scoring method

Many workplaces use a simple scoring method. It is not set by EU law; it is just one example. Give each risk a likelihood from 1 (unlikely) to 3 (likely) and a severity from 1 (minor injury) to 3 (death or serious injury). Then multiply: score = likelihood × severity.

Record it and involve workers

Record the results: who did the assessment, the hazards and risks found, groups at particular risk, the measures needed, who is responsible for each measure and by when, and review dates. Draw up the record with the consultation and participation of workers and their representatives, and tell workers the results for their own job.

Themenquiz 4: Risk assessment step by step

Lesson 5: Common hazards

Slips, trips and falls

EU-OSHA calls slips, trips and falls the largest cause of accidents in all sectors, from heavy industry to offices. A slip happens when there is not enough grip between shoe and floor, often because of water, oil or dust. A trip happens when the foot catches on something, such as a cable, a loose mat or an uneven edge; even a level change of about 8 mm can catch people out. Falls on stairs happen more often going down than going up.

EU-OSHA's order of control is:

1. Eliminate at source (level the floor, fix the leak).
2. Substitute (use a different cleaning method).
3. Separate people from the hazard (barriers around a wet floor).
4. Protect (slip-resistant footwear), only when the other steps are not enough.

Also keep walkways clear and well lit, clean spills straight away and warn people until the floor is dry, and route cables away from walkways.

Display screen equipment

Directive 90/270/EEC protects workers who habitually use a display screen for a significant part of their normal work. The employer must:

• Analyse workstations for risks to eyesight, physical problems and mental stress, and fix what is found.
• Plan the work so screen work is regularly interrupted by breaks or changes of activity.
• Offer an eye test before screen work starts, at regular intervals, and when a worker has visual difficulties that may be due to screen work. If normal glasses are unsuitable, special glasses for the work must be provided, at no cost to the worker.

Minimum requirements include a screen that swivels and tilts, a tiltable keyboard separate from the screen, a chair with adjustable seat height and an adjustable back, and a footrest for anyone who wants one.

Noise

Directive 2003/10/EC sets values for a worker's daily noise exposure (an 8-hour average):

Dangerous substances

A dangerous substance is any liquid, gas or solid that poses a risk to workers' health or safety. EU-OSHA says elimination and substitution are at the top of the hierarchy of controls; then technical and organisational measures, such as local exhaust ventilation; PPE is the last resort.

Under the CLP Regulation, hazardous chemicals carry labels with diamond-shaped pictograms with a red frame, a signal word, hazard statements and precautionary statements. The signal word "Danger" is used for the most severe hazard categories and "Warning" for the others. Safety data sheets give more detail in 16 sections. Your employer must tell you about the hazardous chemicals at your workplace and give you access to their safety data sheets.

Safety signs

Directive 92/58/EEC says employers must use safety signs where hazards cannot be avoided or reduced enough by other means, and must tell workers what the signs mean.

Themenquiz 5: Common hazards: slips, screens, noise, chemicals and signs

Lesson 6: Reporting accidents and near misses

Accidents: the employer's duties

Under Article 9 of the Framework Directive, the employer must:

• keep a list of accidents that leave a worker unfit for work for more than three working days;
• draw up reports on accidents for the responsible authorities, in line with national laws and practice.

The detailed reporting rules, such as forms and deadlines, are set nationally and differ between countries.

For EU statistics, Eurostat counts an accident as fatal if the victim dies within one year of it.

Near misses

A near miss is an unplanned event that could have caused injury, illness or damage, but did not. For example, a box falls from a shelf just where someone was standing a moment before.

The causes of accidents are often the same as the causes of near misses. So a near miss is a free lesson in how to prevent an accident.

A good reporting culture

• Reporting is everyone's responsibility, not only managers' or the safety team's.
• Make it simple and open to everyone, on paper or electronically, and train new workers to use it.
• The aim is to learn, not to blame. Workers report more when they know they will not be punished.
• Workers stop reporting if nothing happens, so give feedback on every report.
• More reports after a campaign usually means more awareness, not more risk.

What to put in a report

What happened; when and where; who was involved; what factors played a part; what stopped it becoming an accident; ideas to prevent it happening again; and a name to contact for questions.

Follow-up

1. Fix any immediate danger first.
2. Investigate to find the root causes, as for an accident.
3. Choose lasting measures, with a named person and a deadline.
4. Tell the reporter what was done, or why no action was needed, and use the lessons to update the risk assessment.

Themenquiz 6: Reporting accidents and near misses