In Western Europe, North America, and Australasia, the decade or so from 1970 witnessed the most significant overhaul of occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation in at least 50 years. The complex web of prior laws was merged into a single overarching act, although extractive industries remained separate in some jurisdictions. There was a general shift to adopting performance standards (general duty provisions) and process standards (including requiring risk assessment), albeit less so in the USA. Correspondingly, there was less emphasis on prescriptive standards (that specified requirements in detail, such as the provision of machine-guarding except in high hazard industries like mining and construction. Another particularly critical change in Western Europe and Australia was provision for employee health and safety representatives (HSRs) with rights to inspect workplaces and take actions to safeguard workers. These changes provided the key principles for the International Labour Organisation’s basic OHS convention (155) which came, in turn, to be a model (to varying degrees) for OHS legislative frameworks in many other countries, such as Malaysia and South Africa.
A review of UK legislation (the 1972 Robens report) was a major influence on the reforms just described (including Australia). Ironically, it did not recommend safety representatives, although Lord Robens had served as chair of the National Coal Board where worker safety representatives (workmen-inspectors) had existed for a century. Nonetheless, the legislative reforms in the UK (Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974, which did include HSRs) and elsewhere at this time were driven by a major labour movement/community campaign, and the legislative packages adopted were predicated on a strong union movement and active collective engagement. The reforms can be viewed as perhaps the last big hurrah of the post-war long-boom reform push by organised labour, but which was being overtaken, even as it occurred, by the collapse of that boom and rise of neoliberalism that was antithetical to organised labour and progressive social reform.
Context is everything, and what James and Walters do is provide a forensic analysis of the post-Robens UK OHS legislation, especially its shortcomings in the light of multiple changes. The book begins with an overview chapter describing the historical context and rationale for the reforms (including rationalising the fragmented and partial coverage of earlier laws) and how it was predicated on a strong union presence/density – around 50% at the time. That proportion declined dramatically in the UK, as in many other countries under the influence of neoliberal policies, industry shifts in employment, and labour market fracturing. Chapter 2 looks at the political and economic determinants of work-related harm. This includes an examination of the data that, amongst things, shows that work-fatality data is understated not only because (as in most countries) it excludes work-related suicide and the enormous toll due to occupational disease, but also (unlike many other countries) it excludes transport-related fatalities – a major gap because it is one of the most dangerous industries. The chapter also examines contextual changes undermining OHS, including the rise of precarious/insecure work, changes to business organisation (such as outsourcing and supply chains), digital technologies, the effects of low income/higher inequality, and weakening union influence. Chapter 3 then examines how the regulatory agenda was captured by management ideology (including notions of corporately determined safety culture), with a focus on management systems that abandoned pluralism and were often unitarist in conception.
James and Walters are two of the UK’s leading OHS academics, and they cogently marshal evidence to support their analysis, only a few examples of which it is possible to allude to here. But this book has greater ambitions than simply offering a critique of why legislative reform with potential was undermined. The monograph is published by the Institute for Employment Rights which has promoted progressive policy reforms and consistent with this, there is a strong reform agenda to James and Walters’ work. Indeed, Chapters 4–8 mix critical analysis with policy prescription which are summarised in the concluding chapter (9). Chapter 4 turns to dealing with deficiencies identified in Chapter 3 and presents an argument about how regulation could be made more relevant, including a more systematic approach to managing OHS. Given all the systems-speak in OHS, this may seem ironic, but it is actually accurate because the current framework is failing to deal with existing and emerging risks in anything like a comprehensive and consistent fashion.
Chapter 4 is followed by two chapters (5 and 6) on worker voice and involvement, again mixing an analysis of existing limitations in the regulatory framework and institutional supports for this with corresponding policy/reform recommendation. Walters is probably the world’s leading authority on this aspect of OHS, but this emphasis represents far more than his own interests/predilections. Consistent with the observation at the opening of this review, meaningful worker involvement is pivotal to effective OHS legislation for multiple reasons, including that it can make laws work irrespective of how committed management is, something demonstrated in studies of coal mining. As the authors make clear, the importance of this aspect is also demonstrated by the Covid-19 experience. As an aside I would have liked to see more on pandemic/disease risks, meeting the OHS effects of climate change and the challenges of increasingly mobile populations/vulnerable groups and crowded urban centres. Leaving this to one side, James and Walters make a number of valuable recommendations for refashioning laws (including moving to worker rather than employee representation like Australia) and restoring union influence. With regard to the latter, they recognise the solutions extend beyond legislative adjustments to fundamental socio-economic policies including abandoning/reversing neoliberalism.
Two chapters also deal with regulation. Chapter 7 focuses on the problems of the existing regulatory infrastructure including the Health and Safety Executive finances and regulatory oversight, while Chapter 8 deals with enforcement. Again, the analysis and recommendations are valuable, and indeed, a number will strike a familiar chord with those from other countries. These include the argument for integrating or at least intermeshing OHS with other labour standards regulation and also for better-resourced and targeted enforcement using an array of genuinely deterrent tools/penalties.
As noted, Chapter 9 provides a cogent summary of the key findings and recommendations. Overall, the book has real value for those interested in OHS, industrial relations and labour regulation well beyond the UK. James and Walters draw on global research to contextualise/support their analysis and I know of no comparable overarching study of the post-Robens reforms to OHS regulation, especially one that integrates institutional and regulatory analysis. Equally importantly, the issues and themes they focus their attention are ones that are apparent in other countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada that underwent similar reforms, and indeed more widely than that. This is not to suggest that the outcomes in other countries were identical to the UK, or that remedies do not need to take account of local contexts. But broad parallels are striking and the differences/nuances themselves instructive. A further strength is the capacity of the authors to transition critical evidentiary analysis into practical policy recommendations to deal with the problems identified. This review is long overdue and should be read. The only minor quibble I had, in addition to one already mentioned, was the absence of a short subject index to aid the reader chase up particular topics and issues.
