Dynamics and Limits to the Empowerment of Labour Expertise in Health and Safety at Work - [Dynamiques et limites de l'autonomisation de l'expertise auprès des CHSCT]

The right for worker representatives to rely on expertise in the field of working conditions was created in 1982. Since that date, besides other institutional actors such as doctors or labor inspectors, a new category of specialists has been developing. Those actors were granted a legal status of St...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Author Cristofalo, Paula
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2012
Subjects
Labor unions
Occupational hazards
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Summary:The right for worker representatives to rely on expertise in the field of working conditions was created in 1982. Since that date, besides other institutional actors such as doctors or labor inspectors, a new category of specialists has been developing. Those actors were granted a legal status of State-certified experts in the early 1990s. The article relates the development of the main bodies that have been operating in this field at the request of elected committees for health and safety at work (CHSCT). Whereas those bodies were at first closely linked to the labour movement, they progressively had to distance themselves from trade unions in order to reproduce both economic and symbolic requirements for their own legitimacy. However, such distancing does not imply any separation - it rather means that expert bodies and trade unions mutually redefined their relationship.
DOI:10.3917/rdli.074.0127