R (On the Application of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Anor [2020]

The claimant, a trade union, applied to the High Court for a declaration that the UK had failed to properly transpose Article 8(4) and Article 8(5) of the EU Health and Safety Framework Directive 89/391 on the basis that the UK only covered employees and not others with different employment status. These Articles allowed for workers to leave their workstations where there is serious, imminent, or unavoidable danger without being placed at a disadvantage. 

The Directive required certain protections for ‘workers’ which was defined within Article 3 of the Directive as: 

‘…any person employed by an employer, including trainees and apprentices but excluding domestic servants’ 

The