Occupational health and safety and the functions of law: a system's analysis

Abstract

The article suggests a model that can account for the systemic nature of the law's functions with regard to occupational health and safety. The model presents four functions for law's intervention: to establish standards, to ensure the welfare of those injured on the job, to provide incentives for employers and employees to reduce the level of injuries, and to ensure the efficient administration of public expenditures. The model requires observing law's intertwining functions in context and assessing the output according to a weighted index. The article applies this framework for a critical description of the Israeli system. While injury rates in Israel are ‘normal’, compared to other industrialized countries, the findings suggest some deficiencies in the functions of law including: inadequate adaptation of the standardization process to the challenges of the ‘new workplace’, incomplete incentives for adopting a high level of care and for compliance with standards, a relative failure of effort to induce a managerial culture that cooperates with workers on issues of health and safety, and a general fragmentation of the system.