Worker participation in the management of occupational safety and health, qualitative evidence from ESENER 2 : summary

This report presents a qualitative study of worker representation on occupational health and safety (OSH) in the European Union (EU) and is a follow-up to the second European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2). It considers current practices within the EU and what these suggest about the influences that determine them. The study focuses on the representation of workers' interests in safety and health as experienced by the representatives themselves, by their fellow workers and by their employers and managers. It is based on in-depth interviews with participants in 143 different establishments of various sizes, consisting of equal proportions of small (between 10 and 49 employees), medium (between 50 and 249 employees) and large (more than 250 employees) establishments. These establishments are situated in seven EU Member States (Belgium, Estonia, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), representing a range of different regulatory and industrial relations contexts. The majority of the interviewees were selected from the population of respondents who had participated in ESENER-2 and who had agreed to be contacted for follow-up investigations. They were drawn equally from three sectors: private manufacturing, the public sector and private services. Their analysis was supported by a review of the literature and additional interviews with key informants in relevant organisations, as well as by a further quantitative analysis of relevant ESENER-2 data.