INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENTS AT WORK AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES: THE EU REGULATION AND CASE LAW

Abstract

The matter of accidents at work and occupational diseases, as the subject of insurance protection, falls within the aims of various EU rules. This is part of a more general interest of the European Union’s legislator and judges for safety and health in the workplace. In this regard, the present paper aims at analyzing the capacity for the implementation and development of an occupational safety and health management approach in the European Union. The analysis is conducted through the examination of the European legal framework governing the matter, as well as the most recent and relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on insurance and compensation of damages for accidents at work and occupational diseases. From this research an effort emerges, at the European level, to ensure safety and health standards. However, such efforts are inadequate with respect to a constantly changing labour market, characterized by less and less stable employment relationships, new working patterns and an ageing workforce. Nor are all the people concerned by those changes adequately covered by the existing health, safety and insurance legislation, as well as the increasing number of temporary workers and workers with atypical contracts.