This is what has emerged from the second round of consultations with the social partners on what the “act” should contain.
Read this article in Swedish on Arbeidsliv i Norden
The Commission covers other issues too in the extensive consultation document, including the use of display screens, protection for workers in subcontracting chains and just transitions in the labour market.
For each issue, the Commission considers what objectives should be pursued, possible ways forward, and what type of action (legislation, stronger enforcement of existing rules, social dialogue, etc.) might be appropriate.
The most concrete proposals concern the EU’s health and safety rules. Here, the Commission notes that three directives have been overtaken by developments in working life and need updating.
- The Directive on minimum safety and health requirements for the workplace (89/654) applies only to work on the employer’s premises and does not cover working from home or other forms of remote work. Similarly, people working in fields, woods and other land used for agricultural or forestry operations are completely excluded from the directive, despite being exposed to serious risks.
- The Display Screen Equipment Directive (90/270) does not cover modern types of screens such as tablets and laptops.
- Since the Framework Directive on health and safety at work (1989/391) was adopted, some types of risk have also become more prevalent, including ergonomic risks, risks associated with heat and extreme weather conditions, and psychosocial risks. This indicates that EU legislation needs to address these risks too, the Commission argues.
The proposals in the other areas are considerably less concrete. The text gives the impression of a series of compromises in which everyone has managed to include their own hobbyhorses and buzzwords, without anything concrete actually being said.
Take algorithmic management and artificial intelligence, for example. The aim is partly to support and enable the take-up of artificial intelligence at work while strengthening competitiveness, and partly to promote quality jobs and good working conditions and protect fundamental rights such as privacy and personal data protection.
How these interests are to be balanced in practice, however, remains unclear.
The responses to the first round of consultations show that trade unions want legislation providing stronger protection for workers in all the areas covered by the consultation.
Employers, by contrast, point out that there is already extensive legislation in place and that the EU should focus on implementation and better controls of how this is being enforced by member states, while simplifying existing rules to reduce the administrative burden on businesses.
They do, however, acknowledge that updating the health and safety directives may be justified.
Finally, the Commission asks whether the social partners would be prepared to enter into negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement on any of the subjects covered by the document. We shall see.
The article was first published in EU & Labour Law number. 3/2026: “Kommissionen: Nya arbetsmiljöregler behövs för sysselsättning av hög kvalitet.
