Reducing workplace accidents: advice for employees

2. European legislation

Workers have certain obligations under article 13 of Directive 89/391, which provides the general framework for health and safety management, risk identification and prevention.

The directive says it is the responsibility of workers to take care, as far as possible, of their own and colleague’s safety and health in accordance with their employers’ training and instructions.


In particular, workers must:

• make correct use of machinery, apparatus, tools, dangerous substances and transport equipment
• make correct use of the personal protective equipment supplied
• not disconnect, change or remove arbitrarily safety devices fitted, for example, to machinery, apparatus, tools, plant and buildings; and use such safety devices correctly
• immediately inform the employer and/or the workers with specific responsibility for the safety and health of workers of any work situation they have reasonable grounds for considering represents a serious and immediate danger to safety and health and of any shortcomings in the protection arrangements.
  

Other individual directives are also relevant to accident prevention.