The Robens Report

There have been very few studies which have considered Inspectorate/ employee relationships. But the La Trobe/Melbourne Occupational Health and Safety project did collect valuable data on inspector/health and safety representative interaction. This study observed and assessed the operation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1985, which was enacted by the State of Victoria and modelled on the Robens Report. The authors explain that the Act meant that inspectors now had to adjust to acknowledging the existence and powers of worker representatives (1990 124). Their findings and conclusions accord with those of this research. They found evidence that inspectors were not always asking to see health and safety representatives when they visited workplaces. They also discerned a concern amongst inspectors that they could be embroiled in industrial relations problems that were not strictly related to occupational health and safety. As this research into BR found, the degree of contact between inspectors and health and safety representatives seemed to be dependent upon the discretion of individual inspectors. The La Trobe study also discerned a similar reliance upon managerial prerogative to let employees know that an inspector was on site. 

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