By Gianni Arrigo
Occupational health and safety law and administration (OSH) is one of the most important branches within EU labour law. Unlike other sectors of EU law, it early achieved an organised and organic structure that is still lacking in other areas today, with the sole exception, perhaps, of anti-discrimination law. Yet, the journey was long, and not always easy or linear. The beginning, moreover, was dramatic. In 1956, even before the birth of the European Economic Community, a Permanent Body for Safety in Coal Mines was established within the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in the wake of tragedy in the Belgian coal mine of Bois du Cazier, occurred on 8 August 1956, that cost the lives of 262 miners, of over twelve different nationalities, more than half of whom, 136, were Italian. After this catastrophe, many actors shifted the question of blame and responsibility from an individual and national level to the European level. Mining risks were discussed as a structural and european issue. Furthermore, the ECSC saw the disaster as an opportunity for more european integration in new domains, most notably social policy.
The Marcinelle disaster had a long-lasting impact on the way in which risks and accidents were managed on the european level. Some measures were deemed more ‘technical’, but played a social role as well. The implemented and established institutions and practices within the High Authority of ECSC, remained influential in the decades to come. On a more theoretical level, the case of Marcinelle illustrates the importance of combining risk and European integration frameworks.
Under the auspices of the ECSC, various research programmes were carried out in the field of OSH. The need for a global approach to the matter became manifest within the European Economic Community (EEC), a few years after its establishment. Indeed, the early years of the EEC made little impact upon the social and employment spheres, outside the impact arising from economic integration […].
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