Local agreements as an instrument for improvement of management-employee collaboration on occupational health and safety

Employee participation is crucial to safe and secure workplaceenvironments. Health and safety regulation or voluntary agreementsform two different approaches to this. In Denmark, a legislativechange facilitates combining the two approaches. The new flexibilityof approach enables the organization of health and safety tobe tailored to the needs of the workplace based on a local agreementnegotiated between management and local union representatives.This new approach is explored in this article. The study findsthat the system has a positive impact on employee participation,improves collaborative relations, strengthens local commitmentand there is a perceived increase in organizational efficiencyand flexibility; all factors that have been shown to increasesafety performance.