"A labour inspectorate emerged in most industrialised countries during the 19th century. While national reports and case studies on this vital piece of the labour relations jigsaw abound, comparative studies are scarcer. In this comparative analysis, various international experts in workplace health consider the development of inspection systems in five countries or regions – Australia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Quebec and France – in terms of one central question: how to ensure effective public intervention for occupational health in times of change?
This book came out of a decade of meetings between experts. It is a working method that has avoided ending up with a jumble of individual studies which, however meritorious in their own right, can be frustrating when lumped together as an assemblage with no unifying thread.
The authors see inspection as an essential link between the rules and their enforcement in the workplace. They show how both sides of this equation have undergone profound changes in recent decades. The regulation of health and safety at work has focused on organizing the processes of analysis, debate and decision-making that were meant to steer business in the right direction. Dutch expert Ton Wilthagen talks of "regulated self-regulation" in the sense of prompting companies to make the right decisions at the right time while setting objectives to be delivered, and to varying degrees putting structures and means in place (prevention services, health and safety committees, risk assessment documents).
Regulation may have changed, but work, too, has moved on. One of the most challenging trends is the growth of chain subcontracting which precludes complete control over the real work process purely in terms of what businesses as separate legal entities do. The situation is further complicated by changing expectations. Prevention has overwhelmingly focused on the aim of reducing work accidents. But workers, society and public authorities are now looking more at the preservation of health, including against the long-term health damage of work. Be it cancer prevention or reducing psychological risks, the traditional approaches need to be looked at in a new critical light.
The most common public policy response has been to develop comprehensive management processes. These may stem from two types of regulation: prescriptive public regulation, or standards organizations. In the latter case, workplace risks are managed in accordance with voluntary benchmarks, possibly coupled to certification by private providers. The distinction between the sources and mandatory or voluntary nature of these management systems is less clear-cut in practice where the labour inspectorate favours advice and persuasion, and views sanctions as a last resort.
The Quebec approach differs with the sector of the economy. An organized prevention system is compulsory in only 10 of 30 sectors. Also, some requirements – including setting up a health and safety committee – apply only to companies with more than 20 workers. This piecemeal approach should have been replaced by a more comprehensive system but never has been due to a lack of consensus between unions and employers. As a result, Québec companies have for over thirty years been labouring under different seemingly stereotypically "low risk" regulatory regimes. Stricter rules apply in the chemical and metallurgical industries, whereas the textile industry, agriculture and social services have a "lighter touch" regime. Just a quarter of all Quebec workers are covered by a prevention system, and the percentage is even lower for women.
In two Australian states (Victoria and Queensland) and the United Kingdom, the employer's duty of care has been extended to the impact of his activities on all those affected, be it members of the public, workers of companies operating on the same production sites, or those in a subcontracting relationship.
This collection of essays shows the limits of the reforms engaged in recent years. It highlights the inconsistency in mainly cost-cutting public policies. Properly-resourced inspection systems are essential to the credibility of any public policy for occupational health. The authors emphasize that the new approach seems to work only in companies where there is a labour organization able to influence the organization of work. They express concern about many governments' waning interest in inspection systems. — Laurent Vogel"

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