Self-employed

Introduction

This article provides an overview of the state of occupational safety and health (OSH) for self-employed workers and examines why they are considered to be an at risk group. It describes how being self-employed can exclude workers from some of the protection that legislation provides and will consider the obstacles to securing good OSH. After describing the common problems, the article then provides recomendations for improving OSH for self-employed workers.

The self-employed

In 2009, self-employed workers accounted for about ten per cent of all employment in Europe[1]. Since the recession the proportion of self-employed workers in some…