European Court of Justice – july 2025

Protection of the safety and health of workers

European Court of Justice – july 2025

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social policy – Protection of the safety and health of workers – Directive 89/391/EEC – Measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work – Articles 5, 6 and 9 – Obligations on employers – Directive 2000/54/EC – Protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work – Article 14(3) – Health surveillance – Making available of effective vaccines – Annex VII, points 1 and 2 – National legislation allowing employers to require workers who are exposed to a biological risk to undergo vaccination – SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Article 6(1) and (2) and Article 9(1) of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, and Article 14(3) of Directive 2000/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work (seventh individual directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC), as amended by Commission Directive (EU) 2020/739 of 3 June 2020, read in conjunction with points 1 and 2 of Annex VII to Directive 2000/54, as amended, must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation pursuant to which an employer may require workers with whom it has concluded an employment contract to undergo vaccination if they are exposed to a biological risk.

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Social security – Migrant workers – Coordination of social security systems – Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 – Article 85(1) – Benefits payable under the legislation of a Member State for injury sustained in the territory of another Member State – Right of action of the institutions responsible for providing benefits against a liable third party – Rights of the injured party – Subrogation – Limits.

Article 85(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the coordination of social security systems must be interpreted as meaning that, where a person, under the legislation of the Member State in which he or she is resident, receives a widow’s or widower’s pension following the death of his or her spouse as a result of an accident at work which occurred in the territory of another Member State, and the legislation of the first Member State provides, with respect to the institution responsible for paying that pension, for a right of subrogation against a third party liable to provide compensation for the injury resulting from that accident at work, the recoupment action of that institution is not subject to the existence, in the second Member State, of a legal basis allowing such a pension or equivalent benefit to be obtained, in so far as it is sufficient that the benefits provided for following a trigger event, such as an accident at work, by the legislation of the Member States concerned are sufficiently comparable as regards their respective subject matter and purposes for the right of subrogation provided for by the legislation of the first Member State and referred to in Article 85(1) to be extended to the benefit provided for by the second Member State.




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