‘Safety Matters Have Become Too Important for Management to Leave it Up to the Workers’ –The Nordic OSH Model Between Implicit and Explicit Frameworks

In a globalized economy it is relevant to question whether the Nordic Working Environment (WE) model will remain as the basic and implicit framework for the governance of the WE. This paper explores institutional changes in the governance of the WE, and critically examines how a more explicit and market-oriented framework might influence the governance of the WE in the Nordic countries. Firstly, the paper examines the changes in the governance of the WE at the societal level (Denmark) for the period 1954 - 2007, and identifies institutional logics informing these changes. Secondly, the paper examines changes in the governance of the WE at the level of the construction sector, using case material from four of the largest construction projects completed in Denmark in recent years. The analyses reveal three discrete periods, representing distinct logics influencing the governance of the WE, i.e., the logic of the state, the logic of democracy and the logic of the market. The logic of the state and the logic of democracy represent an implicit framework, whereas the logic of the market entails a shift to a more explicit framework. The shift to a more explicit framework for the governance of the WE, is also identified at the level of the construction sector. This leads to a pivotal shift in the clients' and the construction companies' relationship with the institutional environment in the four large construction projects. From worker representatives being the primary stakeholders, to a shift where the fulcrum of the development of the WE lies between management, the state and stakeholders in the companies' environment. This shift opens up a range of new and more market-oriented approaches to the governance of the WE that seems to challenge the extant Nordic WE model

Young Workers on Digital Labor Platforms: Uncovering the Double Autonomy Paradox

Drawing on interviews with 12 young adults in the Danish digital labor market, this article investigates how young workers on digital labor platforms experience the tension between ‘algorithmic management’ and autonomy. Digital labor platforms promise autonomy to workers, but the study shows that the platforms in varying degrees exert control over the labor process in different stages of the work. The inherent non-transparency of the algorithmic management systems makes it difficult for the young workers to understand the underlying mechanisms of the platforms. While the young workers’ autonomy in some important ways is restricted by the algorithmic management systems, the young workers have all chosen the platform work because they feel that it allows them to control where and when they work. We propose the conceptualization ‘the double autonomy paradox of young workers’ to describe this phenomenon

Young Workers on Digital Labor Platforms: Uncovering the Double Autonomy Paradox

Drawing on interviews with 12 young adults in the Danish digital labor market, this article investigates how young workers on digital labor platforms experience the tension between ‘algorithmic management’ and autonomy. Digital labor platforms promise autonomy to workers, but the study shows that the platforms in varying degrees exert control over the labor process in different stages of the work. The inherent non-transparency of the algorithmic management systems makes it difficult for the young workers to understand the underlying mechanisms of the platforms. While the young workers’ autonomy in some important ways is restricted by the algorithmic management systems, the young workers have all chosen the platform work because they feel that it allows them to control where and when they work. We propose the conceptualization ‘the double autonomy paradox of young workers’ to describe this phenomenon

Without a Safety Net: Precarization Among Young Danish Employees

Precarisation’ is one of the concepts that has become important in efforts to explain how neoliberal politics and changed economic conditions produce new forms of marginalization and increased insecurity. The aim of this article is to examine how subjectivity is produced among young Danish employees through socio-material processes of precarization at workplaces and employment projects. Drawing on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with 35 young employees and young people ‘Neither in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET), the three case examples show how processes of precarization, rooted in global economic and political conditions, can be understood as situated contextual practices. It is demonstrated how being positioned as an easily replaceable source of labor is shaping young people’s processes of subjectification

Effectiveness of OHSAS 18001 in reducing accidents at work. A follow-up study of 13,102 workplaces

Introduction: Many organizations worldwide have adopted certified occupational health and safety management systems (COHSMSs), such as OHSAS 18001. The effectiveness of COHSMSs in improving health and safety at work has become an important question for authorities, companies, and other stakeholders. This study aims to examine whether the adoption of COHSMSs leads to reduced risk of severe accidents at work. Method: We used a register-based longitudinal design, to compare the risk of severe accidents among adopters to non-adopters of COHSMS in the period 2010 – 2018. We linked a national register of COHSMS adopters with individual-level information on reportable accidents in the Labour Market Insurance (LMI) register to compare the risk of severe accidents at work among 805 adopters of COHSMS with a matched control group of 12,297 non-adopters of COHSMS. Multivariable Poisson regression models were used to calculate rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: The risk of severe accidents at work was 14% lower among adopters of COHSMS compared to non-adopters already two years before the date of certification (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.76–0.98), but no further decrease in the rate ratio could be established at three-year follow-up (RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.75–0.97). In addition, we found no decrease in the rate ratio for all reportable accidents at work at three-year follow-up. Conclusion: Workplaces with a lower risk of accidents are more likely to adopt COHSMS, indicating either a self-selection effect or that adopting workplaces have improved safety during the pre-certification phase for obtaining a certificate. Adopters of COHSMS did not reduce reportable severe work accidents further at three-year follow-up after the date of certification. This study did not find support for an effect of COHSMS on reportable severe accidents at work and nor all reportable accidents at work.</p

Exploring and Expanding the Category of ‘Young Workers’ According to Situated Ways of Doing Risk and Safety—a Case Study in the Retail Industry

Young adult workers aged 18–24 years have the highest risk of accidents at work. Following the work of Bourdieu and Tannock, we demonstrate that young adult workers are a highly differentiated group. Accordingly, safety prevention among young adult workers needs to be nuanced in ways that take into consideration the different positions and conditions under which young adult workers are employed. Based on single and group interviews with 26 young adult workers from six various sized supermarkets, we categorize young adult retail workers into the following five distinct groups: ‘Skilled workers,’ ‘Apprentices,’ ‘Sabbatical year workers,’ ‘Student workers,’ and ‘School dropouts.’ We argue that exposure to accidental risk is not equally distributed among them and offer an insight into the narratives of young adult workers on the subject of risk situations at work. The categorizations are explored and expanded according to the situated ways of ‘doing’ risk and safety in the working practices of the adult workers. We suggest that the understanding of ‘young’ as an age-related biological category might explain why approaches to prevent accidents among young employees first and foremost include individual factors like advice, information, and supervision and to a lesser degree the structural and cultural environment wherein they are embedded. We conclude that age cannot stand alone as the only factor in safety prevention directed at workers aged 18–24 years; if we do so, there is a risk of overemphasizing age-related individual characteristics such as awareness and cognitive limitations before structural, relational, and hierarchical dimensions at the workplace

Differences in occupational health and safety efforts between adopters and non-adopters of certified occupational health and safety management systems

Certified occupational health and safety management systems (COHSMSs) continue to grow in popularity and to diffuse to new industries. This study investigated differences in occupational health and safety efforts between adopters and non-adopters of COHSMSs. We used cross-sectional survey data from 4,202 Danish workplaces from all sectors to compare self-reported occupational health and safety efforts in workplaces with a COHSMS and workplaces without a COHSMS. The ‘systematic process-related OHS efforts’ and ‘content-related OHS efforts’ were scored on five and seven scales, respectively, for both adopters and non-adopters. The results of linear regression analysis revealed significantly lower score values for non-adopters than for adopters of COHSMSs, which means certified workplaces perform better than non-certified workplaces in both process-related and content-related OHS activities. We conclude that COHSMSs workplaces have a higher overall level of efforts for both process and content OHS activities. The study therefore supports the assumption that COHSMS adopters provide a higher level of OHS management than non-adopters, and that using the company's OHS performance as merely ‘window dressing’ is not a general feature of adopters. However, the results also indicate that a small group of COHSMS adopters has a considerably lower level of OHS effort than non-adopters, which implies that the certification system does not necessarily secure a high level of OHS management for all adopters. Furthermore, a small group of adopters have high process activities and low content activities, suggesting a decoupling between the systematic OHS processes and the specific preventive activities in the workplace, which could be a sign of window dressing. Further research is needed to establish the possible effects on health and safety outcomes, such as lost-time injuries.</p

Without a Safety Net: Precarization Among Young Danish Employees

Precarisation’ is one of the concepts that has become important in efforts to explain how neoliberal politics and changed economic conditions produce new forms of marginalization and increased insecurity. The aim of this article is to examine how subjectivity is produced among young Danish employees through socio-material processes of precarization at workplaces and employment projects. Drawing on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews with 35 young employees and young people ‘Neither in Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET), the three case examples show how processes of precarization, rooted in global economic and political conditions, can be understood as situated contextual practices. It is demonstrated how being positioned as an easily replaceable source of labor is shaping young people’s processes of subjectification

Participatory organizational intervention for improved use of assistive devices for patient transfer:study protocol for a single-blinded cluster randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies have shown that patient transfer is a risk factor for back pain, back injuries and long term sickness absence, whereas consistent use of assistive devices during patient transfer seems to be protective. While classical ergonomic interventions based on education and training in lifting and transferring techniques have not proven to be effective in preventing back pain, participatory ergonomics, that is meant to engage and motivate the involved parties while at the same time making the intervention maximally relevant, may represent a better solution. However, these findings are largely based on uncontrolled studies and thus lack to be confirmed by studies with better study designs. In this article, we present the design of a study which aims to evaluate the effect and process of a participatory organizational intervention for improved use of assistive devices. METHODS: The study was performed as a cluster randomized controlled trial. We recruited 27 departments (clusters) from five hospitals in Denmark to participate in the study. Prior to randomization, interviews, observations and questionnaire answers (baseline questionnaire) were collected to gain knowledge of barriers and potential solutions for better use of assistive devices. In April 2016, the 27 departments were randomly allocated using a random numbers table to a participatory intervention (14 clusters, 324 healthcare workers) or a control group (13 clusters, 318 healthcare workers). The participatory intervention will consist of workshops with leaders and selected healthcare workers of each department. Workshop participants will be asked to discuss the identified barriers, develop solutions for increasing the use of assistive devices and implement them in their department. Use of assistive devices (using digital counters -, primary outcome, and accelerometers and questionnaire - secondary outcome), perceived physical exertion during patient transfer, pain intensity in the lower back, occurrence of work-related back injuries during patient transfer, organizational readiness to change, knowledge on how to perform proper patient transfer, social capital and work ability (secondary outcomes) were assessed at baseline and will also be assessed at 1 year follow-up. Process evaluation will be based on qualitative and quantitative data to assess the implementation, the change process, and the impact of context aspects. DISCUSSION: The study will evaluate the effect and process of a participatory intervention on improving the use of assistive devices for patient transfer among hospital healthcare workers. By using cluster-randomization, as well as process- and effect evaluation based on objective measures we will contribute to the evidence base of a promising intervention approach. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02708550). March, 2016