Union intervention and occupational health in the European Union: Dimensions, coverage and impact

The determining factors of workers’ quality of employment and occupational health are many and different, including from those of a structural nature (productive sector, size of company, labour organization, type of contract) and contextual (economic cycle, normative regulation ), to those with an institutional dimension (system of labor relations, union participation, collective bargaining, Labor Inspection) and, even, cultural (business management model, preventive training programs and risk assessment). Regarding the influence of the first group of such factors (structural and contextual) on the evolution of occupational accidents, there is already important specialized literature and empirical studies, so we will focus our research on analyzing the dimensions, coverage and impact of the institutional and cultural factors. To this end, we will use the European databases specialized in the matter for the construction of indicators and identification of the corresponding variables, whose statistical exploitation and subsequent analysis will allow us to evaluate the impact of trade union intervention and business management models in the reduction of the accident rate and the improvement of occupational health in the European Union.