Department of Public Management Masters in Safe Environment at Work Enhancing the Human Resource: Em

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Department of Public ManagementMasters in
Safe Environment at WorkEnhancing the Human
Resource Employee WellBeing at the Workplace -
An Interdisciplinary Approach.

• The European Social Model, Better Regulation,
  Soft Law and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Charles Woolfson

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Strengths of the ESM

• The ESM while attempting to endorse common
  European societal values also leaves open key
  aspects for local adaptation by member states
  (the principle of subsidiarity)
• recognising the diversity of local and national
  conditions (multi-level governance and decision
  making processes)

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• ve virtues of adaptability and flexibility in
  policy making within a common framework.
• ve attempt through a common set of standards and
  values to prevent social dumping or free
  riding - to attract foreign investment by
  offering lower levels of protection to citizens
  and workers eg on safety and health at work.

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Weakness of the ESM

• -ve complex and ill-understood policy model which
  lacks transparency and relevance
• -ve subsidiarity is often used by member states
  to block new Community policies and instruments
  and resist binding social regulations

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The ESM under attack the neo-liberal offensive

• The ESM founded on social democratic values (a
  social welfarist Europe a balance of market and
  social priorities)
• Attack from within EU
• - powerful individual member states such as UK,
  Italy and Germany hostile to ESM, especially
  during the 1980s and 1990s, but still today (the
  Third Way of Tony Blair, Germany Hartz IV
  reforms).
• - UNICE the European Employers Federation
  afraid of too much regulation as a burden on
  business

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ESM under external attack

• Major international financial institutions (IMF,
  World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
  Development) argue that European competitiveness
  depends on being able to compete in the global
  market place ie with cheaper sourced products
  from SE Asia, China etc

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The nature of the attack on the ESM-

• - New forces of globalisation make the ESM an
  outdated concept of the 1960s and the 1970s
• - Social welfarist approaches stifle individual
  initiative and free market enterprise (the nanny
  state)
• - Social protection measure introduce harmful
  rigidities into the labour market which
  undermine necessary flexibility and
  competitiveness (eg minimum wages, too high
  unemployment benefit levels, unwillingness to
  accept lower pay and benefits eg reduced state
  pension rights and increased working age).

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Soft law, subsidiarity and voluntary
initiatives

• Regulatory reform at European level -
• Key policy goal of the Lisbon strategy has been
  to reduce the administrative burden of business
  (European Council, 2000).
• Traditional EU Directives replaced by more
  efficient, flexible and proportionate instruments
  (for example, framework directives, new approach
  directives or softer regulatory alternatives)
• This encourages autonomous processes of
  adjustment and confers rule making-powers to
  self-regulatory processes ie., stakeholders
  in the regulation process voluntarily agree to
  frameworks of rules eg sectoral agreements on
  safety and health.

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Discussion on the ESM - A realistic agenda for
the enlarged Europe?

• Can the ESM be transposed into the CEE new member
  states?
• What might be the internal political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers to transposing
  the ESM?
• What might be the external political, economic,
  administrative, social barriers barriers to
  transposing the ESM?
• Do we need a European Social Model?

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Health and Safety in European law

• Article 118A of the Treaty of Rome (incorporated
  as Article 137 of the Amsterdam -Treaty- the
  Commission with the Member States will develop
  clearly defined policy on prevention of
  occupational accidents and diseases.
• Key instrument Framework Directive 89/391/EEC
  which contains basic provisions regarding the
  organisation of health and safety at work and the
  responsibilities of employers and workers.
  Subsequent legislation protects workers form
  risks related to exposure to chemical, physical
  and biological agents at work with specific
  directives on harmful substances such as asbestos.

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Adapting to Change in Work and Society A New
Community Strategy on Health and Safety at Work
2002-2006

• Occupational safety and health linked to
  quality in work, as a positive factor to the
  business competitiveness equation
• Emphasis on well-being at work, implying not
  simply the absence of sickness and injury, but
  attainment and preservation of general physical
  and mental health in the work process
• Consolidating of a culture of risk prevention
  through a combination of policy instruments and
  a partnership approach to safety and health at
  work
• Mix of policy instruments including both
  voluntary initiatives, such as social dialogue,
  corporate social responsibility, economic
  incentives and benchmarking which improves
  peoples knowledge of risks and attempts to
  ensure better application of existing law.
• mainstreaming of neglected issues such as the
  gender factor

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Enlargement and the new strategy on safety and
health at work

• candidate countries - an average frequency of
  occupational accidents which is well above the
  average for the EU
• mainly because of their higher degree of
  specialisation in sectors which are traditionally
  regarded as high-risk
• No figures provided for relative frequencies of
  accidents or illnesses

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Diplomatic understatement the call for
heightened vigilance

• The data indicate that the preventive approach
  set out in Community directives has not yet been
  fully understood and taken on board by the
  various players, nor applied effectively on the
  ground (2002,p.4)

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Preparing for enlargement

• one of the major challenges facing the European
  Union (2002, 17)
• ensure that the new Member States can be
  absorbed in conformity with the rules and with a
  guarantee that the institutions and bodies of the
  EU will continue to function smoothly
• the candidate countries themselveshave to
  absorb into their national systems an enormous
  and complex corpus of legislation

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an effective transfer of experience and
knowledge.

• beefing-up programmes of technical assistance,
  using partnership and twinning arrangements
  developing arrangements for the exchange of
  experience and access to knowledge and to the
  results of Community research, by integrating the
  candidate countries into the institutions and
  bodies concerned strengthening the social
  dialogue at all levels, particularly in firms
  promoting the collection and analysis of data on
  accidents at work and occupational illnesses,
  notably by integrating the candidate countries
  into ongoing Community work on statistical
  harmonisation.

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Strategy an elaborate and systematic plan of
action

• The Commission strategy claims to provide a
  coherent policy framework and proposes concrete
  action, along with a full implementation
  timetable

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Institutional mechanisms for promoting the new
strategy

• The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
  in Bilbao - a driving force in matters
  concerning awareness-building and risk
  anticipation
• Agency to set up a risk observatory in order to
  provide examples of good practice and to organise
  exchanges of experience and information by way of
  the systematic collection of data
• Agency instructed to integrate the candidate
  countries into these information networks, and
  devise working tools which are geared to their
  specific situation

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Positive steps

• Attempt to integrate the candidate countries has
  been through the creation of Agency focal
  points - a Europe-wide network of
  representatives of labour inspectorates, now
  involving all of the new member states.
• Informational role, the Agency web presence in
  the national languages of the new member states,
  augmenting existing resources.
• Basic information about Agency campaigns, annual
  reports and factsheets, for example, on stress,
  bullying and violence at work are now available
  in the languages of the new members.

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Promoting Quality at Work in an Enlarged
European Union

• future initiatives are outlined in the Agencys
  Rolling Programme of Work 2005-2008
• 30 - 50,000 Euros will be allocated to each
  member state, new and old, to encourage the
  further development of national focal points
• Creation of a dedicated Topic Centre for the
  New member States (funded to 240,000 Euros)
• An Enlargement Action Plan (1.75m Euros)
  focussing on communications activities, data
  collection and awareness raising/campaigning in
  new member states

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Concerns

• All long overdue programmes.
• Is the Agency is being asked to do the
  impossible, with too little resources and too
  late in the day?
• How far can informational and networking activity
  secure the consolidating of a culture of risk
  prevention?
• Little evidence so far of working tools which
  are geared to their (NMS) specific situation.

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Internal policy constraints

• Support among accession state business and
  political elites for European labour protection
  regulation, especially in the area of OHS, is
  limited (absence of reform fit)
• Regulatory authorities in new member states may
  be subject to post-accession regulatory fatigue
  and depletion of capacities

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External policy constraints

• External agencies (IMF) appear to favour
  deregulation and differentiated standards of OHS
  protection in Central and Eastern Europe
• overregulation of conditions of employment will
  diminish the comparative advantage that CEE
  workers enjoy over their more highly paid western
  counterparts (Washington-based Cato Institute)

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External policy constraints

• EU criticized because it rejects the
  possibility of different levels of safety and
  health protection of labour within the Union and
  advocates the need to harmonize health and
  safety standards irrespective of the different
  needs of the member states (Cato Institute,
  2003)
• Health and safety regulations contribute to
  worsening of the workers lot, by creating an
  artificial increase in labour costs (Cato
  Institute, 2003)

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External policy constraints

• EUs post-Lisbon retreat from securing employee
  rights, in favour of promoting growth and
  competitiveness, and a consequent downplaying of
  the social dimension of Europe
• Adoption by EU of many neo-liberal assumptions
  about regulation and the burden it imposes on
  business
• European Commission programme of updating and
  simplifying the acquis
• Health and safety at work legislation being
  subjected to a detailed scrutiny for their
  simplification potential

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Regulatory reform at European level - Better
regulation and Soft Law)

• Traditional EU Directives replaced by more
  efficient, flexible and proportionate instruments
  (for example, framework directives, new approach
  directives or softer regulatory alternatives)
• This encourages autonomous processes of
  adjustment and confers rule making-powers to
  self-regulatory processes ie., stakeholders
  in the regulation process voluntarily agree to
  frameworks of rules eg sectoral agreements on
  safety and health

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Soft law in action The Open Method of
Co-ordination (OMC)

• Open Method of Co-ordination endorsed (Lisbon
  Council) as-
• an important tool of EU governance in achieving
  social and employment policy goals includes
  health and safety at work
• Notions of benchmarking and best practice -
  securing a flexible and decentralised approach to
  policy creation and implementation

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OMC, subsidiarity and social partnership

• The principle of subsidiarity embodied in the OMC
  implies devolving policy inputs to regional and
  local levels, thus spreading horizontally
  outwards to the social partners and civil society
  representatives.
• These actors will be actively involved, in the
  policy process using variable forms of
  partnership (European Council 2000, para.38).

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OMC and Corporate Social Responsibility

• OMC appeals to companies' sense of corporate
  social responsibility regarding best practices,
  on such matters as
• work organisation
• equal opportunities
• social inclusion
• safety and health

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Social partners in the new member CEE states

• Employers have focused on profitability
• Workers have prioritized employment security and
  wages over health and safety.
• No real degree of workforce involvement,
  particularly in small and medium sized
  establishments
• Trade unions very weak and unable to meet
  employers on equal terms in real social dialogue

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Doing Business in 2006 Eastern European and
Baltic Nations Encourage Businesses with
Aggressive Regulatory Reforms

• WASHINGTON, D.C., September 12, 2005 Eastern
  European and Baltic nations are aggressively
  courting entrepreneurs with far-reaching reforms
  that streamline business regulations and taxes,
  according to a new report from the World Bank
  Group.
• The annual report, which for the first time
  provides a global ranking of 155 nations on key
  business regulations and reforms, finds that
  every country in Eastern Europe improved at least
  one aspect of the business environment

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Attempts to improve the climate for business to
encourage FDI

• The top 30 economies in the world in terms of the
  reports ease-of-doing-business index, in order,
  are New Zealand, Singapore, the United States,
  Canada, Norway, Australia, Hong Kong/China,
  Denmark, the United Kingdom, Japan, Ireland,
  Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania (15), Estonia
  (16), Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Thailand,
  Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Mauritius, the
  Netherlands, Chile, Latvia (26), Korea, South
  Africa, Israel, and Spain. For the three Baltic
  countries to be in the top 30 is a remarkable
  achievement, as only a decade has passed since
  they first began reforms.

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Priorities of EUs Competitiveness Council -
Better Regulation

• BETTER REGULATION AND SIMPLIFICATION OF
  LEGISLATION
• Health and safety at work
• Social Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June
  1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage
  improvements in the safety and health of workers
  at work.
• Yearly information requirements with regard to
  all of the individual measures impose a
  disproportionate burden on the Member States.
• Information requirements should be minimised,
  harmonised and reverted to a 6 year cycle.
• Reporting should be shaped as one summary report
  for all measures.
• Report of 2624th Council Meeting, Competitiveness
  (Internal Market, Industry and Research)
  Brussels, 25 and 26 November 2004. P13.

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Better regulation

• European Commission- Less red tape more growth
• all major items included in the Commission's
  annual legislative and work programme subject to
  impact assessment and simplification since
  beginning of 2005.
• avoiding gold-plating during the transposition
  of EU legislation.
• (See Better Regulation for Growth and Jobs in the
  European Union, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
  TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
  SEC(2005) 175 Brussels, 16.3.2005,COM(2005) 97
  final).
• http//europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/e
  n/com/2005/com2005_0097en01.pdf
• UK EU Presidency 2005
• delivery of the Commissions Better Regulation
  Agenda of March 2005. Including stronger impact
  assessments on new EU legislation, increased
  business input into the legislative process and
  simplification/withdrawal of some existing
  legislation.
• http//www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/UKEUPresidency2
  005_PresidencyPriorities_EN.pdf

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• The European Commission is committed to improving
  the regulatory environment within which our
  businesses operate and in so doing help them
  compete successfully in global markets.
• Major efforts have already been launched to
  improve the regulatory environment as part of the
  so-called Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs.
  Consultation procedures have been strengthened,
  major new proposals for legislation are now
  subject to impact assessment, and existing
  legislation is being evaluated on its
  effectiveness.
• In mid-March, the Commission announced further
  steps in its Communication on Better Regulation
  for Growth and Jobs. This includes the launch of
  a major new simplification programme by October,
  2005. In order to ensure that the programme
  responds to real concerns, the European
  Commission is keen to hear from businesses which
  rules need to be simplified because they stand in
  the way of sustainable growth, deter business
  investment or hinder job creation.
• Your views are important to us. They will be
  compiled and examined in the Commissions Red
  Tape Observatory and will also be examined by
  the responsible Commission services.
• Thank you in advance for your time.
• José Manuel Barroso, President of the European
  Commission
• http//europa.eu.int/yourvoice/forms/dispatch?form
  418langEN

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Case study of Corporate Social Responsibility
Failure in the Baltic region

• Ferro-concrete plant in Ukmereges, a small town
  of 30,000 in eastern Lithuania
• New production line producing expandable
  polystyrene (EPS) insulation panels for buildings
• granular raw material for EPS emits pentane - a
  gas so flammable that, when mixed with air, even
  heat from a single light bulb can ignite

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Ukmereges July 2003 3 killed, 10 burn victims

• no gas-monitoring equipment
• ventilation was inadequate
• a fire which resulted when a welder used a
  blowtorch the previous day unreported to the
  authorities
• substantial amounts of pentane which is heavier
  than air, had accumulated in the foundations of
  the building.

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Profits before Safety

• Company was the cheapest supplier of foam
  polystyrene panels in the country.
• The production line had been recently renovated
  and modernised
• production output was 9 times higher than before
  renovation.
• Consequently, pentane levels in the occupational
  environment also increased

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Corporate Failure

• Company failed to execute any additional
  occupational risk hazard assessments
• failed to indicate any explosion risk in the
  workers instructions
• warning instructions were in Russian, not
  Lithuanian
• regulations relative to workers protection
  against hazardous chemical substances at work
  were not adhered to
• requirements for protecting employees working in
  a potentially explosive environment were not
  adhered to.

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Official Report

• Improper aeration system in the industrial
  premises was one of the circumstances that
  stipulated the explosion.
• in the course of carrying out the extension of
  the exhaust pipe of vacuum system, not all the
  relevant work and fire safety means, which
  guarantee safety in regards of explosion, have
  been envisaged and implemented.
• Personal safety means did not correspond to the
  characteristics of work and were insufficient for
  the protection from traumas of workers bodies.
• Non-fulfilment of technical and organisational
  construction and fire safety requirements during
  the design, installation and exploitation of the
  machinery

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Results of State Labour Inspection of premises in
which dangerous or hazardous work is carried out

• The companies inspected failed to properly
  evaluate the level of risk and possibility of the
  explosion in the production process. Such a
  situation should put us in doubt about the safety
  and health of the employees working in the
  companies where explosive, combustible
  technologies are installed and used, where
  noxious substances are used, where dangerous
  mechanisms are utilized (like cleaning, plumbing
  and flushing manholes, tanks, gasbags there are
  around 1million of them in Lithuania).

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Safety Crime and the response of the criminal
justice system

• 4 cases for criminal charges considered
• for chief engineer,
• for Specialist for safety at the work place
• for technical director
• for head of the unit.
• The General director was not under criminal
  investigation.
• Outcomes unknown at this time.

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State control of safety crime

• According to the Lithuanian Labour Inspection, in
  year 2003 around 60 percent of Lithuanian
  companies (their managing directors)
• did not organize the inspections to estimate the
  level of risk at workplaces
• did not take any necessary precautions to ensure
  health and safe working environment.
• As a result, the level of the deadly injures at
  work increased by 16 that year (as compared to
  year 2002) and the number of serious and deadly
  accidents in the transportation companies
  increased by 50. Small and middle-sized
  companies lack the effective safety and health
  control systems.

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A soft law future?

• Need to recognise tensions between profits and
  safety
• Business will not always do the right thing
• Need for credible compliance incentives enforced
  by pro-active labour inspection and enforcement
• Empowerment of stakeholders must be real
• Workplace harms and injuries to employees -
  rarely individual isolated unforeseeable events.
• They are more often the result of long term
  underlying patterns of (mis)behaviour.

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Strengthening Policy in OHS

• Counter pro-business anti-regulation policy
  bias in EU and domestic policy circles
• New resources to domestic monitoring agencies to
  ensure implementation and enforcement powers to
  stimulate compliance-seeking behaviour
• A tacit compliance moratorium?
• Higher penalties for safety violations and a
  greater role for criminalisation of health and
  safety offences where necessary, to balance CSR
  and self-regulation initiatives
• Resourcing and empowerment of social partners,
  trade unions and employers organisations within
  OHS process.

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From rhetoric to reality - safety and health at
work in the CEE new member states

• In the CEE new member accession states many
  employers do not see good health and safety
  necessarily as good business
• Little interest in good practice voluntary
  initiatives and corporate social responsibility

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Regime competition

• Scope for regulatory experimentation (soft law,
  CSR and the OMC) very limited at a domestic level
  in the new member CEE states.
• Emergence of regulatory regime competition and
  a race to the bottom between new and older
  member states
• CEE new member accession states in danger of
  providing a reservoir of cheap labour and an
  inferior high hazard work environment.

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Alternative regulatory strategies to the OMC and
soft law

• End the pro-business anti-regulation bias in
  policy circles and reaffirm Community-level
  regulation in the enlarged EU
• New resources to domestic monitoring agencies to
  ensure implementation, enforcement powers
  sufficient to stimulate compliance-seeking by
  member states and domestic actors.
• Higher commensurate fines for safety violators
  and criminalisation of health and safety offences
  where necessary (corporate killing laws)
• Resourcing and empowerment of social partners,
  trade unions and employers organisations, within
  the health and safety and social dialogue process