Studies & Surveys

The New European Machinery Regulation, published in the Official Journal on 29 June 2023, repeals the 2006 Directive. EUROGIP and the ETUI have joined forces to publish an article-by-article comparative analysis of the two texts.

The authors, Pierre Belingard at EUROGIP and Stefano Boy at the ETUI, have designed this guide as an essential tool for stakeholders interested in the design, use and monitoring of machinery to assess the quality and relevance of the proposed changes. In addition, the guide should contribute to the production of high-quality harmonised standards.

The document is presented in 2 main columns, with the articles of the new Regulation 2023/1230 opposite those of Directive 2006/42. A colour code makes it easy to identify the differences between the two texts: addition, deletion, modification or relocation of part of the text.

It is thus similar to the previous comparison guide between Directives 98/37 and 2006/42 on which EUROGIP and the ETUI had already collaborated in 2008. In particular, EUROGIP translated the document into French.

NB: the guide is also available in French and in German

Drawing on its expertise in occupational injuries insurance systems, this EUROGIP’s report examines how an employee who suffers an accident at work while teleworking should be treated.

The question takes on its full importance in a context where this organization of remote work has certainly developed in a period of health crisis linked to Covid-19, but has now taken root on a long-term basis.

What coverage is available to employees? What are the prerogatives of the employer, who remains responsible for employee health and safety? What legislation has developed and applies today? What is the case law?

These are just some of the questions examined in this report, which covers seven European countries: Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

The well-documented analysis focuses primarily on telecommuting, and not on other possible forms of remote working. In addition, it focuses on salaried employment with reference to the general occupational injury insurance scheme that covers it in the seven countries studied.

EUROGIP has published the results of a new study on the recognition of work-related mental disorders as accidents at work and/or occupational diseases in 7 European countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

It turns out that, under certain conditions, a mental illness resulting from a specific, sudden and unforeseeable event can theoretically be recognised as an accident at work in many European countries.

But an increasing number of workers are now claiming to be suffering from non-traumatic disorders (depression, burnout, etc.), caused by the organisation and working conditions, violence or management style they encounter in the workplace. These situations, corresponding to prolonged exposure to a psychosocial risk, raise the question of recognition of psychological disorders as occupational diseases, an issue on which only a few countries – Denmark, Spain, France, Italy and Sweden – took a favourable stance some twenty years ago.

The new EUROGIP report therefore looks at :

• mental disorders linked to psychosocial risks (those caused by toxic substances, particularly solvents, are excluded);
• the five countries which recognise mental disorders as occupational diseases, as well as Germany and Belgium, where information on recognition as accidents at work is available;
• the process of recognition of the occupational nature of mental illnesses;
• the statistics published by “accidents at work/occupational diseases” insurers.

One point concerns recognition of suicide.

Download the report

The new EUROGIP report looks at legislation and preventive action taken in the event of hot work or heatwaves in a number of countries:

• Europe: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• Worldwide: Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, South Africa, the Gulf States, China, Japan and South Korea.

The increasingly frequent and intense heatwaves linked to global warming can have serious, even fatal, health consequences for workers. Protecting their health and safety is therefore a major challenge.

EUROGIP offers an overview of the various measures (legislation, collective agreements, tools, campaigns, etc.) adopted in the countries studied to meet this challenge. The first question asked is whether there is a maximum working temperature.

This report focuses in particular on jobs carried out outdoors and therefore particularly affected by heat waves.

The original version is in French and the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association, JISHA, translated the summary into Japanese.

EUROGIP publishes a new Focus on the possibilities of recognition of Covid-19 as an accident at work/occupational disease (AW/OD). The document updates the information published in May 2020.

Indeed, since their first positions were taken in the midst of containment, the occupational injury insurers have refined or changed certain provisions, in particular because of the increase in the number of requests for recognition, both from healthcare workers and from other categories of workers.

Now that the systems have stabilized, certain observations can be made. These are presented in this Focus, together with a summary table and details of the conditions for recognition in nine European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden.

EUROGIP publishes a new report entitled: “Platform workers: what status for what social protection? Characteristics – European initiatives – Situation in 6 European countries”.

Platform work is bringing about profound changes in the world of work. The consequences for working conditions are major, with blurred boundaries between employees and self-employed… This transformation has taken place rapidly, thanks to the flourishing development of technology and the massive use of new applications. But regulation has not kept pace, leaving workers often without social security coverage and in “grey areas”.

However, platform work is not free of occupational risks, whether they are common to other professions (MSD, road risk, for example), or linked to the very characteristics of these new jobs, such as the pressure linked to the continuous evaluation system, the need to perform as many tasks as possible, “algorithmic management”, etc.

In order to find concrete solutions to the challenges arising from platform work, the European Commission has proposed a set of measures – including a Directive – to ensure that the workers concerned “can enjoy the labour rights and social benefits to which they are entitled”.

This EUROGIP report does not claim to be exhaustive on such a vast and rapidly evolving subject. Its purpose is to analyse the phenomenon and understand its scope, to take stock of the challenges that this transformation of the world of work poses to our society, particularly in terms of social protection, including occupational injury insurance. It also analyses the actions implemented in recent years at the European Union level and in six countries: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

(the report is in French only)

In this new Focus, EUROGIP takes stock of the European Commission’s 2021-2027 strategic framework on health and safety at work.

This strategic framework aims to mobilise the EU institutions, Member States, social partners and other stakeholders on the challenges and key actions to be implemented around three cross-cutting objectives:

• anticipating and managing change in the new world of work
• improving the prevention of accidents at work and occupational diseases
• strengthening preparedness for possible future health crises.

In this new Focus, EUROGIP – which is also associated with the corresponding Task Force – reports on the new European Occupational Diseases Statistics (EODS) pilot project.

The aim is to collect national data in a single database and to provide trends on the most recognised occupational diseases (ODs) at European level.

In the 2000s, such an experiment had already been attempted. However, Eurostat was forced to discontinue its publications due to the non-comparability of the countries between them. Today, it proposes to experiment with a new, simpler and more reliable data collection.