Health &amp; safety at work: time for change

Phil James,David Walters

doi:10.13169/instemplrighj.2.1.0058

Abstract

After a brief review of the continuing unacceptable scale of work-related injuries and ill health suffered by workers as they go about the task of earning a living, this booklet provides a critical examination of the continued appropriateness of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It does so through a discussion of four issues seen as critical to the operation of the framework of law established under the 1974 statute, including: the Act's application to current patterns of employment; the oversight and enforcement of employer compliance with their duties; worker access to representation; and the effective resourcing and governance of the framework of law created by the Act. On the basis of this discussion, a range of recommendations for reform are suggested to address identified problems in each of these areas. The scale and focus of these reforms supports a further argument that the time has come to repeal the Health and Safety at Work and replace it with a more appropriate and effective framework of law.

Highlights

Employment laws both reflect and influence the world surrounding them
This booklet critically examines the continued appropriateness of the framework of law established by the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act 1974
As was made clear at the outset, this booklet has not sought to provide a comprehensive blueprint for the reform of British health and safety law: a task that is to be taken up in a future successor volume to the earlier IER publications Regulating health and safety at work: The way forward and Regulating health and safety at work: An agenda for change? 81 It has not, for example, addressed the reform of arrangements for the compensation of work-related injuries and illness, or the nature of the health and safety management infrastructures that employers should be legally required to put in place

Summary

Executive summary

This booklet critically examines the continued appropriateness of the framework of law established by the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act 1974 It does so through an exploration of four key issues: the Act’s application to today’s employment patterns and structures; the oversight and enforcement of employers’ compliance with their duties; worker access to representation; and the regulatory framework’s overall governance and resourcing. It is concluded that the time has come to repeal the HSW Act and replace it with a more appropriate and effective framework of law

Introduction

Findings

Conclusion