Framework Directive 89/391/EEC

What is Framework Directive 89/391/EEC?

Before 1989, EU occupational safety and health legislation was fragmented and focused on specific risks. The Single European Act introduced Article 118a of the Treaty, which empowered the Council to adopt, by qualified majority, minimum provisions aimed at promoting improvements in the working environment to protect the safety and health of workers. On this basis, Directive 89/391/EEC was adopted. This directive, known as the Framework Directive because it establishes the common principles that are subsequently developed by specific directives adopted pursuant to Article 16, cover workplaces, work equipment, personal protective equipment, manual handling of loads, display screens, chemical, biological and carcinogenic agents, construction sites, and other matters.

The directive applies to all sectors of activity, both public and private, with the exception of certain specific public service activities, such as the armed forces or the police, and civil protection services, where their particularities conclusively preclude its application (Article 2). It establishes minimum provisions: Member States may maintain or adopt more favorable measures for workers, and transposition cannot justify a reduction in the level of protection already achieved.

Its influence extends beyond the European Union. Together with ILO Convention 155, whose principles it incorporates, it has served as a reference for prevention legislation in numerous countries and for occupational safety and health management system standards. In Spain, Law 31/1995 replicates its structure and logic: the right to effective protection, the employer’s duty to protect , principles of preventive action, assessment, information, consultation, training, emergencies, health surveillance, and the organization of prevention.

Main content

• Employer obligations (articles 5 to 12). Guarantee the safety and health of workers in all aspects related to work; apply the general principles of prevention; assess risks and have the assessment available; organize protection and prevention services; adopt first aid, fire fighting and evacuation measures; inform, consult and train workers.
• General principles of prevention (article 6.2). Avoid risks, assess those that cannot be avoided, combat them at their source, adapt the work to the person, take into account the evolution of technology, replace what is dangerous with what entails little or no danger, plan prevention, prioritize collective protection over individual protection and give the appropriate instructions to the workers.
• Serious and imminent risk (Article 8). Right of workers to interrupt their activity and leave the workplace without suffering any harm, and obligation to inform them of emergency measures.
• Consultation and participation (Article 11). Consultation of workers and their representatives, with specific functions in matters of safety and health, on the measures, the designation of personnel, the evaluation and the training.
• Workers’ obligations (Article 13). To ensure their own safety and health and that of persons affected by their actions, using equipment, devices and means of protection correctly and communicating dangerous situations.
• Health surveillance (Article 14). Measures to ensure adequate health surveillance based on risks, with the possibility of periodic examinations.
• Risk groups (Article 15). Specific protection of groups exposed to particularly sensitive risks.

Specific directives and evolution

• Specific Directives. Adopted in accordance with Article 16.1, they regulate specific risks, sectors or groups: workplaces (89/654/EEC), work equipment (2009/104/EC), personal protective equipment (89/656/EEC), manual handling of loads (90/269/EEC), display screens (90/270/EEC), carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic agents (2004/37/EC), chemical agents (98/24/EC) and others.
• Amendments. The directive has been amended, among others, by Regulation (EC) 1882/2003, Directive 2007/30/EC, which simplified implementation reports, and Regulation (EC) 1137/2008.
• Evaluation and strategic framework. The European Commission periodically evaluates the implementation of the directive and specific directives, and defines priorities in the strategic frameworks for health and safety at work, the one in force for 2021-2027.
• Relationship with other standards. It is complemented by Regulation (EU) 2016/425 on PPE, Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery and regulations on working time, among others.

Organizational application: how to use the Framework Directive

1. Identify the national legislation that transposes the directive in each country where the organization operates, verifying that the preventive system complies at least with its minimum provisions.
2. Use the general prevention principles of article 6.2 as a criterion for designing and prioritizing preventive measures.
3. Ensure that the risk assessment covers all positions and that the organization has it documented, in accordance with Article 9.
4. Guarantee information, consultation, participation and training for workers and their representatives.
5. Organize protection and prevention services, internal or external, with the appropriate skills and resources.
6. Apply the specific directives relevant to the risks of the activity (equipment, places, agents, sectors).
7. Monitor European regulatory developments and strategic frameworks to anticipate changes in obligations.

Preventive management software helps organizations with a presence in several Member States to manage a common framework based on the directive and, at the same time, the additional requirements of each national transposition.

Limits and common mistakes

1. Invoking the directive as a rule directly applicable to the company: the enforceable obligations are those of the national transposition law.
2. Assuming that the transposition is identical in all Member States, when many have adopted more demanding provisions.
3. Forget the specific directives, which specify the obligations for certain risks and sectors.
4. Reducing general prevention principles to a statement without translating them into actual planning.
5. Ignoring the right of workers to interrupt activity in the face of a serious and imminent risk in internal procedures.
6. Failure to update the system in response to changes in directives and their transpositions.

The consolidated text and amendments can be found in EUR-Lex; this information sheet is for informational purposes only.

Regulatory and reference framework

• Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989. Text of the Framework Directive on the safety and health of workers at work.
• Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 153. Current legal basis of the Union’s social policy, including safety and health at work.
• Law 31/1995, of November 8. Transposition of the Framework Directive into Spanish law.
• ILO Convention 155 (1981) . International instrument whose principles are included in the directive.
• EU strategic framework for health and safety at work 2021-2027 . Current Union priorities in the implementation of legislation.

The specific directives adopted pursuant to Article 16 of the Framework Directive are available in EUR-Lex; the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) publishes summaries of European legislation on the matter.