Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Social policy - Protection of health and safety of workers - Directive 89/391 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work - Evaluation of risks - Employers' obligations

(Council Directive 83/391, Art. 6(3)(a))

2. Acts of the institutions - Directives - Implementation by the Member States - Need for clear and precise transposition - Legal certainty guaranteed to individuals

Summary

1. It follows both from the purpose of Directive 89/391 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, which, according to its 15th recital, applies to all risks, and from the wording of Article 6(3)(a) thereof, that employers are obliged to evaluate all risks to the safety and health of workers. Also, the occupational risks which are to be evaluated by employers are not fixed once and for all, but are continually changing in relation, particularly, to the progressive development of working conditions and scientific research concerning such risks.

( see paras. 12-13 )

2. Transposing a directive into national law does not necessarily require its provisions to be reproduced verbatim in a specific, express law or regulation; a general legal context may be sufficient, provided that it does effectively ensure the full application of the directive in a sufficiently clear and precise manner. It is particularly important, in order to satisfy the requirement of legal certainty, that individuals should have the benefit of a clear and precise legal situation enabling them to ascertain the full extent of their rights and duties and, where appropriate, to rely on them before the national courts.

( see paras. 21-22 )