La CJCE soumet la sécurité des travailleurs à conditions[en][de] 

The judgment rebukes the Commission for seeking to fight a UK law limiting employer's obligations to ensure the safety and health of their workers. The UK Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974  stipulates: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees." In 19 instances, the qualification "reasonably practicable" continues to be used throughout the act to limit employers' obligations concerning the health and safety of their workers, such as ensuring the absence of hazardous substances from the workplace. 

But the Commission considers the UK restriction to be not in line with community legislation, and more precisely out of step with the 1989 Directive on the safety and health of workers at work , which states that "the employer shall have a duty to ensure the safety and health of workers in every aspect related to the work". The Directive allows exceptions to this general principle only where "occurrences are due to unusual and unforeseeable circumstances, beyond the employers’ control, or to exceptional events, the consequences of which could not have been avoided despite the exercise of all due care". 

The Commission made "guarantee[ing] the proper implementation of community legislation" the first objective of its 2007-2012 Community Strategy on safety and health at work . It argued that the UK constraint went further than allowed for in the Directive. In 2005, it took the UK to the European Court of Justice . 

The Court dismissed the Commission's action, however. On 14 June 2007, its Third Chamber judged  that the EU executive's case was unfounded, because the Commission had not established how the UK failed to fulfil its obligations under the Directive on the safety and health of workers at work. 

Bill Callaghan, chairman of the UK Health and Safety Commission , welcomed the Court's judgment: "The Court has rejected the European Commission’s claim that the use of 'so far as is reasonably practicable' does not implement the Framework Directive. Quite clearly we have been effective in protecting people as currently we have the best occupational safety record in Europe." 

The European Trade Union Confederation said it believes "that this ruling may go against European workers' inalienable right to the protection of their health and safety at work". Walter Cerfeda, ETUC confederal secretary in charge of health and safety at work, added: "This ruling could be a sign of encouragement from the European court to states who want to cut back European legislation on workers' rights."