(30 June, 2025) EPSU and multinational care company Clariane adopted an agreement on health and safety at work during the European Works Council (EWC) plenary meeting held in Paris on 26 June 2025. The agreement aims to improve working conditions and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all Clariane staff across Europe. The company employs 63,000 people in Europe.
The agreement builds on the momentum created on the matter in the EU, highlighted by the EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety in 2021 and the Charter of Fundamental Principles of Social Dialogue in 2023, signed with EPSU.
The agreement sets a common framework to prevent occupational risks, promote physical and mental well-being, and ensure access to appropriate protective equipment and training for all workers. It also establishes mechanisms to monitor and evaluate health and safety indicators, with the goal of reducing accidents and absenteeism across all Clariane sites.
While the framework applies at the European level, it allows flexibility for adaptation to national contexts in collaboration with employee representatives to reflect local ground realities. This represents a significant contribution to improving work conditions, preventing avoidable work-related accidents and structural absenteeism.
The agreement is the first European framework agreement in the private elderly and healthcare sector that places health and safety at the centre of social dialogue. As Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary, noted, it reflects the aims of ILO Convention No. 190 which addresses violence and harassment in the workplace, and reinforces the role of workers and their representatives in shaping safe working environments. He welcomed the agreement as “an important tool of European social dialogue” and stressed the need for strong implementation and follow-up, particularly in a highly demanding sector both physically and mentally.
Sophie Boissard, CEO of Clariane, emphasised the importance of the agreement in supporting employees' well-being as a key condition for delivering quality care. The Secretary of the European Works Council, Bonaventure Muhigana, described it as “a forward-looking signature” and a concrete outcome of constructive, structured dialogue.
The agreement’s impact will be regularly assessed using measurable indicators defined during the negotiation process. Follow-up will involve staff representatives and trade unions at both national and European levels.
Click here to read the agreement.
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