Fitness for purpose of occupational safety and health monitoring and enforcement in the European Union

In the complex European Union (EU) system, the 27 Member States (the EU27) are separately responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with occupational safety and health (OSH) regulatory standards, through the activities of one or more regulatory institutions in each country (the OSH regulators). The processes of monitoring entail gathering information through inspections, investigations and audits about how regulated firms and individuals (regulatees) have responded to regulatory standards; and enforcement encompasses the use of regulatory measures and sanctions to persuade, induce or compel regulatees to comply with the standards.1 This article analyzes OSH regulators' approaches to monitoring and enforcing compliance, and their "fitness for purpose" in the context of the contemporary and evolving work landscape.