Occupational risk prevention — Prevention players

The concept of health and safety provides a comprehensive overview of the individual at work. According to the case law of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg: "the concepts of safety and health within the meaning (...) of the Treaty (...) must be given a broad interpretation as covering all factors, physical or otherwise, capable of affecting the health and safety of the worker in his working environment (...). Such an interpretation can be based on the preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, to which all member states belong, which defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (since the judgment of November 12, 1996, United Kingdom v. Council). The physical and mental health of workers is the responsibility of a number of players: employers and employees, employee representatives, the Labour Inspectorate, occupational health services and preventive organizations. The law sets out the powers, resources and responsibilities of each player, so that they can implement an effective health policy within the company.

The aim of this article is to identify the various players involved in occupational risk prevention within the company, in the light of the applicable legal rules.

The actors are :

• State bodies: in particular, the Labour Inspectorate, which reports to the Ministry of Labour, and in particular to its Directorate General of Labour (DGT), which has advisory bodies such as the Conseil d'orientation des conditions de travail (COCT), which helps to draw up public policy guidelines in the fields of health and safety at work, and the improvement of working conditions (Labour Code, article R. 4641-1); French health safety agencies (AFSS) are public bodies whose main mission is to assess health risks (in particular, the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail – ANSES);

• professional players: employers, workers, elected representatives, professional bodies (e.g. OPPBTP).

The article describes the role of the various prevention players directly involved at company level:

• the players present in the company: the employer, the employee, elected staff representatives;

• external players who intervene within the company: occupational health services, the Labour Inspectorate, the prevention department of social security funds, specialized organizations.