Citation

Ollé-Espluga L, Menéndez-Fuster M, Muntaner C, Benach J, Vergara-Duarte M, Vázquez ML. Am. J. Ind. Med. 2014; 57(3): 338-350.

Affiliation

Grup de Recerca en Desigualtats en Salut-Employment Conditions Network (GREDS-EMCONET), Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ajim.22220

PMID

23818054

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The interaction between workers and safety representatives (SRs), a factor that determines SRs' effectiveness, is an unexplored issue within occupational health research. METHODS: We undertook a qualitative exploratory interpretative-descriptive study by means of semi-structured interviews with SRs from Barcelona (Spain) to analyze the SRs' perspective on the interaction with workers and its determinants RESULTS: SRs' interaction with workers is mainly limited to information processes and to identifying occupational hazards. Prominent factors determining this interaction are associated with the way SRs understand and carry out their role, the firm sector and size, and workers' fear of dismissal, exacerbated by changes in the labor market and the current economic crisis. CONCLUSIONS: Interaction with workers is influenced by a more prevalent technical-legal view of the SRs' role and by unequal power relations between workers and management. Poor interaction with workers might lead to decreasing SRs' effectiveness. Am. J. Ind. Med. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en