Participative regulation

Pre-Robens arrangements for health and safety at work were paternalistic. Employees had a duty and a right to enforce statutory safety codes and typically this was a matter of discipline rather than co-operation. Howells regards paternalism as central to the common law approach to occupational safety, moreover The statutory safety codes which developed from these common law principles, were from the outset equally paternalistic in concept and enforcement while no doubt intended for the benefit and protection of the worker, they operated over his head rather than through his co-operation (1974 89). This approach was supplemented by a variety of voluntary rather than statutory arrangements. 

Consultations between employers and employees, argued the Committee, should involve  

There was a flurry of publications and research into workforce participation at the time of the HSW Act, and the SRSC regulations and a revitalization of interest in the subject in the 1990s. Much of the research that has been undertaken is from an industrial relations perspective and much of this has been sponsored by either the unions or the HSE. A number of criticisms arising from this work are worth considering before discussing the findings of this research. 

It should be appreciated that within BR safety representatives were selected from the ranks of the unionized workforce. They received some additional health and safety training from the union and also had some extra facilities provided by the company plus time to undertake their safety representative activities. 

The research sample included nineteen safety representatives. They were from a variety of railway departments and trade unions. They had been safety representatives for a varying number of years— from less than a year to fourteen years those interviewed were evenly spread across this range. This group of safety representatives was asked a series of questions about their own experiences and knowledge of health and safety in an effort to ascertain to what extent they were able to participate in the way suggested by Robens and required by the legislation. The broader workforce were also asked for their knowledge of and views about safety representatives. 

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See Huner (1993) for discussion of this. See Chapter 6 for more discussion of participative regulation. 

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