Within the framework of the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social and Solidarity Economy is holding a conference on the 'Working Conditions of Tomorrow' in Mondorf-les-Bains on 10 and 11 September 2015.
The conference assembles experts, policy makers and social partners of the European Union to discuss the two main pillars of so-called 'social Europe', these being health and safety in the workplace and good working conditions more generally. The conference therefore centres around such topics as the strategic framework for health and safety at work, conditions in the changing world of work and impact of social dialogue in this regard.
"The European Framework Directive on promoting safety and health at work adopted in 1989 is the result of a historic compromise," stated Luxembourg Minister of Health, Lydia Mutsch, who opened the conference. "This Framework Directive can be considered as the mother of all social directives, it is the base of the construction of occupational health in Europe and gave rise to more than 20 specific directives."
The Minister went on to say that, despite this, there remained a lot more progress to be made in this sector, stating that "each year in Europe, 168,000 deaths are due to accidents at work or occupational illnesses, half of which are cancers and a quarter of which are cardiovascular pathologies."
Round-tables and discussions at the conference will attempt to develop solutions to rectify these issues. The conference will be officially closed tomorrow 11 September 2015, with final remarks from Minister for Social Security, Romain Schneider.
