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May 1998, Vol. 121, No. 5
Collective bargaining agreements: safety and health
provisions
George R. Gray, Donald W. Myers, and Phyllis
S. Myers
- Safety
and health issues are a major concern today for both
employers and union representatives. The cost of
workers compensation and health care benefits, the
long-tailed effect of exposure to health hazards, the
premature loss of future years of employment, and the
prevention of human suffering are some of the reasons for
this concern. Collective bargaining negotiations are
potential arenas for the exploration, discussion, and
formalization of philosophies, intentions, and procedures
regarding safety and health matters. However, the actual
extent to which these matters are examined in
contemporary collective bargaining agreements is unknown,
Accordingly, this article investigates the prevalence and
types of safety and health provisions included in the
current collective bargaining agreements of large
private-sector U.S. firms.
-
- Previous research
- A 1976 study examined the prevalence of 26
safety- and health-related subjects in 1,724 major
collective bargaining agreements covering 1,000 or more
workers and maintained in a file by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.1 The contracts
covered 7.9 million workers, or about one-half of all
workers who were included in collective bargaining
agreements in the industries studied. The contracts were
in effect during mid-1974, with most of them remaining in
effect in 1975 and beyond.
-
- The safety and health subjects analyzed in
the 1976 study were (1) general policy statements; (2)
union-management cooperation; (3) dissemination of safety
rules and procedures; (4) dissemination of information to
unions; (5) safety and health committees; (6) employer
compliance with safety requirements; (7) employee
compliance with safety requirements; (8) employee
discipline for noncompliance with safety rules; (9)
safety and health inspections; (10) work performed under
unsafe conditions; (11) final authority in safety
disputes; (12) safety equipment; (13) safe tools,
equipment, and transportation; (14) crew size and working
in isolation; (15) types of safety protection; (16)
protection against noxious gases or dust; (17)
sanitation, housekeeping, and personal hygiene; (18)
provisions for physical examinations; (19) alcohol and
drugs; (20) accident procedures; (21) first aid and
hospital facilities; (22) personnel assigned to treat
injuries; (23) compensation for job-related injuries
(excluding workers compensation), vacation,
holiday, and other payments not available to, or in
addition to, those available to employees with
nonoccupational disabilities; (24) leave and transfer
rights of disabled workers; and (25) pay differentials
for hazardous duty.
This excerpt is from an article published in
the May 1998 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full
text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable
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Footnotes
1 Major
collective bargaining agreements: safety and health provisions
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1976).
Related BLS programs
Safety and Health Statistics
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