The law and management of worker involvement in safety and health

Cooling, RF

Abstract

The research aims to demonstrate the benefits of worker involvement in safety and
health. It establishes the need for a structured and coherent approach to managing worker
involvement and suggests how this can be achieved in practice through the development,
implementation and maintenance of a procedural model. An hypothesis is presented that
worker involvement in safety and health can lead to improved health and safety
performance. Further, to optimize these benefits and gain significant improvements in
performance, changes are necessary in both law and policy to promote a systematic
approach to the management of worker involvement in safety and health.
The central research questions addressed are;
Does worker involvement lead to improvements in health and safety
performance?
Is the level of worker involvement a critical factor?
Can a procedural model help to promote further improvements in performance?
In order to address these questions, the research identifies different levels of worker
involvement in safety and health and places worker involvement in a contextual
background. Published literature and data indicating the benefits of worker involvement
is evaluated and a procedural model is advanced.
Following an introduction to the thesis, a spectrum of worker involvement in safety and
health is presented in Chapter 2, followed by a literature review of associated benefits
and limitations, in Chapter 3. The context of worker involvement in safety and health is
established in Chapters 4, 5 and 6. This includes a review of existing legislation and
guidance, consideration of the influence of changing patterns at work and lessons from
other jurisdictions. Chapter 7 addresses the importance of organisational culture in
developing worker involvement in safety and health and Chapter 8 considers practical
implementation issues. A procedural model for managing worker involvement in safety and health is presented in Chapter 9. Chapter 10 details recommendations for developing
legislation and guidance, with conclusions presented in the final Chapter.

Citation

Cooling, R. The law and management of worker involvement in safety and health. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2011