Health and Safety Representation in Small Firms: A Swedish Success that is Threatened by Political and Labour Market Changes

Abstract

One of the widely recognised challenges to institutional arrangements for representing workers in workplace health and safety concerns workplace size. In virtually all surveys of the coverage of these arrangements, representation is shown to be increasingly difficult in smaller workplaces. In this respect regional safety representatives have been a success story in Sweden in supporting occupational health and safety in small workplaces since the mid-1970s. Unions may by law appoint them for all workplaces where there is at least one member of a trade union and where there is not already a joint occupational health and safety committee.