Book Review

Fifty years since the highly influential Robens Report led to a major overhaul of workplace health and safety (WHS) laws in the United Kingdom and other developed economies, including Australia, Profs. Phil James and David Walters comprehensively review changes in WHS that have flowed from the Robens approach in the UK. This is the third book by James and Walters, produced over two decades for the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) that critically evaluates the regulatory approach to WHS in the UK. It is also the most radical, concluding with recommendations for a major overhaul of the way WHS is regulated. The authors are well-placed to conduct such a review. They are leading researchers in WHS and can draw upon decades of research and observation. Throughout, one can sense their frustration at how regulation and enforcement of WHS in the UK has stagnated (indeed, fallen away) and been captured by organisational interests whilst other nations have adapted to change albeit often in piecemeal ways. But this book is not just about the UK. The early chapters in particular raise many issues that are relevant to all developed economies facing increasing levels of inequality and poorer public health outcomes flowing from the decline of decent work.

The book consists of nine chapters, with recommendations outlined in the relevant chapters and summarised in the final chapter. The authors’ approach to their analysis is clearly outlined from the beginning: they adopt a wide perspective on the relationship between work and harm and its impact on public health; and they view work and harm from the perspective of workers’ interests. The introductory chapter sets out the basic concepts and arguments that shape their critique and recommendations. The authors contend that the fundamental weakness of the Robens analysis was the assumption that ‘there is a greater natural identity of interest between the ‘two sides’ in relation to health and safety’ (p. 6). This belief encouraged an approach to managing WHS that ignored broader factors shaping health and safety, namely how work and employment relations are managed. In essence, they argue the case for recognising the importance of political economy for shaping WHS risks (including neoliberalism entrenching a managerialist understanding of WHS risks); that the interconnections between WHS regulation and labour law require a more holistic approach to regulatory reform (such as health issues related to employee surveillance and work intensification); that workers should play a central role in the identification and resolution of WHS problems (including promoting and protecting collective rights); and that because WHS impacts the health of citizens, WHS should be viewed from a public health policy perspective.

Chapter 2 provides contextual data on the impact of changes at work and associated earnings inequality on ‘the social gradient of health’ as well as significant changes in the UK labour market and employment since the 1970s, each making the Robens approach less viable. These include the shift away from manual labour, demographic changes, precarious employment, migration, the growth of digital technology and declining unionism. The authors highlight the understatement of official counts of WHS deaths and injuries/disease, observing further that the flow on effects for societal health and inequitable impacts upon lower socio-economic groups are beyond the remit of official WHS data, creating an even greater understatement of WHS disadvantage and failure to recognise public health outcomes. Much of this account will be familiar territory to industrial relations (IR) academics. However, it provides a useful reminder to both IR and WHS students of the links between degraded work and poor WHS outcomes, and the profound changes in WHS risks over recent decades that have spilt over into poorer societal health outcomes.

Chapters 3 through 8 critically examine a specific aspect of the three pillars of regulation that underpinned the Robens report, namely: ‘Competent employer engagement with, and responsibility for, evaluating and controlling risks [chapters 3 & 4]; worker representation and consultation contributing practical know-how and monitoring management functions [chapters 5 & 6]; and state regulation and regulatory inspection [chapters 7 & 8]’ (p. 6).

Chapter 3 commences with an account of how management values have come to dominate WHS, whilst Chapter 4 turns to ways that dominance may be countered through more innovative approaches to regulation. The authors provide an overview of the growth of international standards in WHS which have accompanied the shift towards self-regulation – the intent of Robens – but observe how the application of these standards has promoted a paper compliance approach and practices underpinned by management priorities. This, they argue, is an inevitable consequence of standards that are designed as management standards and supported by a dominant ideology of managerialism. In particular, the proliferation of behaviour-based systems (promulgated by consultants promoting those WHS standards) has displaced collective representation of worker interests, ultimately contributing to psychosocial risks and job insecurity. James and Walter argue that contrary to expectations, the promotion of concepts such as ‘good health is good for business’ has resulted in a narrowing definition of safety and increased pressures upon workers to conform to management-derived concepts of safety whilst accepting a plethora of risks such as psychosocial hazards. In their words ‘such approaches have “expertised” discourse around risk management and emphasised managerially determined notions of organisational “safety culture” that ignore the lived experience of workers, while monitoring their behaviour and creating insecurity and stress, and at the same time serving to safeguard the business aims and interests of corporations’ (p. 39). The authors turn to overseas examples to illustrate how more innovative regulation could be considered in the UK, such as an explicit requirement on employers to implement change in consultation with workers or their representatives under the Swedish Work Environment Act, and the extension of employer responsibility beyond employees to workers as has been implemented in Australia. A broad range of recommendations specific to the UK emerges in this chapter, underpinned by the need to enhance collective worker rights to enable an independent voice, and recognise that decent work is a precondition to better WHS and public health outcomes.

Two chapters focus upon workers’ voice. Chapter 5 begins with a discussion of the different meanings attached to employee voice, and the limitations inherent in the UK WHS system where legislation offers a role for union representation but, like elsewhere, union density has fallen drastically. As the authors observe, a more individualised approach to worker involvement in WHS has evolved but not been accompanied by legislated individual rights to support such involvement. Instead, corporate-driven behaviour-based approaches to WHS have become more widespread. Alongside these developments has been the loss of tripartism within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), further undermining a collective response to WHS. The chapter includes considerable detail about the ‘woefully inadequate’ UK WHS statutory protections for worker voice (including changes flowing from European Union membership) which will be of interest to UK WHS academics and practitioners. Chapter 6 focuses more upon the multiple ways in which those factors critical to enabling effective worker voice in WHS have been undermined. Here, the discussion spans inadequate enforcement of worker representation rights, sidelining of worker representatives by unitarist approaches to managing WHS (in both union and non-union workplaces); the defunding of WHS worker training that previously underpinned ‘knowledge activists’; and the structural changes that have contributed to low road strategies and placed workers beyond the reach of regulators and unions. James and Walters draw upon both UK and overseas examples of how these pressures could be countered, such as roving WHS representatives, of union agreements providing minimum employment and representation standards along with supply chains, community unionism and growing resistance amongst gig workers. As the authors note, however, none of these initiatives have received support from the UK regulatory framework. The challenge, the authors acknowledge, is how to build effective worker engagement in WHS across the economy, when non-union workplaces are so prevalent and neo-liberal values so normalised. Here, they draw upon the IER Manifesto for Labour Law produced in 2018 to argue that an expansion of workplace rights for all workers, to support access to more and better WHS education and training and reduce worker insecurity and harassment would enable all workers to feel able to participate in WHS in a meaningful way which reflects their own interests. Fundamental reforms to labour rights more broadly, they argue, are necessary in order to enhance collective and individual rights with respect to WHS. This is a persuasive argument.

James and Walters evaluate the decline in the HSE and associated enforcement activities in Chapters 7 and 8. This analysis is highly specific to the UK, although the discussion of enforcement and compliance activities will be of broader interest to students of regulation. For example, consistent with the theme throughout the book of imbedding WHS into broader labour law reforms, they suggest problems identified with limited HSE inspectoral capacity may be overcome through merging broader labour and WHS inspectorates, drawing upon shared as well as specialised knowledge. The authors’ recommendations again draw upon overseas examples: utilising supply chain compliance mechanisms such as in Australia and the USA, joint liability, enforceable undertakings and promoting strategic alliances involving community engagement in monitoring and complaints processes and the like.

The final ninth chapter summarises the recommendations detailed in the earlier chapters. It is fair to say that many of the international examples the authors draw upon for their recommendations have been tacked on to WHS legal systems that are underpinned by the Robens approach (like Australia), indicating that piecemeal changes can be made without throwing out the bathwater. But equally, the crux of the problems identified in the UK also exists in countries with more innovative approaches to WHS regulation, including the norm of managerialist dominant values, individual worker fears of raising WHS issues and a failure to recognise links between poor WHS and wider public health concerns. Overall, this is a thoughtful analysis of contemporary WHS which has global relevance. The authors intend that it be the stimulus for broader discussion about the regulation of WHS and recognition of the need for radical change. Notwithstanding that parts of the text are dense and tend towards repetition, it should be essential reading for graduate students and WHS practitioners who have a grasp of basic WHS but are interested in understanding the political economy underpinning it. James and Walters cover themes that are of concern in many economies, which could benefit from the broader perspective on WHS that they seek to promote.