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42 Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 679 (2021-2022)
Fitness for Purpose of Occupational Safety and Health Monitoring and Enforcement in the European Union

handle is hein.journals/cllpj42 and id is 715 raw text is: FITNESS FOR PURPOSE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MONITORING AND ENFORCEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Elizabeth Bluff,t Richard Johnstone,tt David Walters,ttt Hans Jorgen Limborg,tttt Ulrik Gensbyttttt I. INTRODUCTION In the complex European Union (EU) system, the 27 Member States (the EU27) are separately responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with occupational safety and health (OSH) regulatory standards, through the activities of one or more regulatory institutions in each country (the OSH regulators). The processes of monitoring entail gathering information through inspections, investigations and audits about how regulated firms and individuals (regulatees) have responded to regulatory standards; and enforce- ment encompasses the use of regulatory measures and sanctions to persuade, induce or compel regulatees to comply with the standards.1 This article ana- lyzes OSH regulators' approaches to monitoring and enforcing compliance, and their fitness for purpose in the context of the contemporary and evolv- ing work landscape. For their part the OSH regulatory standards incorporate a mix of broad goals or duties (for example, to ensure safe and healthy working conditions), processes for managing OSH matters (for example, assessment of risks and worker consultation), performance outcomes or targets (for example, expo- sure standards for chemicals), prescriptive requirements for specific measures, and documentation requirements to record action taken.2 Overall, the regulatory standards aim to create the architecture for managing OSH and t Visiting Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance, The Australian National University, Australia. tt Professor in the School of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. ttt Emeritus Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales. tttt Adjunct Professor in the Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Denmark. ttttt Partner and Senior Scientist at Team Working Life, Denmark, and Adjunct Scientist at the Insti- tute for Work and Health, Canada. 1. ALEJANDRO CAMACHO & ROBERT GLICKSMAN, REORGANIZING GOVERNMENT: A FUNCTIONAL AND DIMENSIONAL FRAMEWORK 28 (2019). 2. RICHARD JOHNSTONE, ELIZABETH BLUFF & ALAN CLAYTON, WORK HEALTH AND SAFETY LAW AND POLICY 179-182 (3d ed. 2012); DAVID WALTERS ET AL., REGULATING WORKPLACE RISKS. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INSPECTION REGIMES IN TIMES OF CHANGE 21-40 (2011). 679