The European Commission announced in a press release that, on Wednesday, 18 May, delegates from Member States, workers, and employers participating in the EU’s Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work (ACSH) reached agreement on the need to recognise Covid-19 as an occupational disease in the health care, social services, and home care sectors as well as, in the context of the pandemic, in sectors where there has been an increase in activities with a proven risk of infection.
The EU list of occupational diseases was also updated on this occasion. The European Commission will thus have to update its 2003 recommendation on occupational diseases—as the institution promised in June 2021—by presenting a new strategy for health and safety at work.
The aim is for Member States to adapt their national legislation in accordance with the updated recommendation. Once Covid-19 is recognised as an occupational disease in a Member State, workers in the relevant sectors who contracted the disease at work can acquire specific rights.
The ACSH is recommending that the European Commission add a new entry ‘408’ to this recommendation. “Most Member States have already reported to Eurostat that they recognise Covid-19 as an occupational disease or accident at work, in line with the conditions defined at national level [...]. Therefore, an update of the Recommendation will contribute to reaching a more consistent situation at EU level in this regard”, the ACSH’s opinion indicates.
While it is clear that Covid-19 is a disease that is not solely tied to occupational factors, the ACSH also states, “it is also obvious that many workers, especially those exposed to infected persons, such as in the health care sector and the social care sector are at a higher risk of contracting the disease”.
Link to the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/1pt (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)