Volume 69, Issue 4 - Special issue: Occupational health in a post-pandemic world of work Guest editors: Nadja Dörflinger und Anita Tisch

Although occupational safety and health (OSH) is a core element of social policy, OSH had rarely been in the focus of social policy research in the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, this special issue brings together state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical insights underlining the connection between OSH and social policy. It contains articles from different academic disciplines dealing with the following broad topics: actors and institutions involved in OSH, OSH policies and measures, and social inequalities related to OSH. The special issue makes three contributions. First, it puts a traditional and highly relevant but under-researched topic back in the focus of attention. Second, it revives the debate by providing interdisciplinary insights on a number of key topics of relevance. Third, these insights have strong implications for policymaking; they are thus of high practical relevance and could contribute to enhancing the protection of workers in the post-pandemic labour market.

The article examines the role of social partners (trade unions and employers) in the field of occupational safety and health (OSH). The Covid-19 pandemic directed attention to the importance of greater national and European level policy coordination to protect and promote healthy, safe, and well-adapted work environments. On the basis of two sectors, hospitals and social services with a focus on elder care, the article asks how OSH policy interventions at the national level and the European level are interlinked. To explore interlinkages, the article focuses on OSH policy coordination between national social partners and European level sectoral social dialogue. The analysis is informed by actor-centred institutionalist and multilevel governance approaches and uses qualitative data. The article explores patterns of interlinkages between the national and European levels in two sectors and six countries and discusses the limitations of applying a cross-national and multilevel conceptual approach. The analysis shows that the pandemic has promoted some coordination at national and between national and EU levels, yet still rather modest interlinkages and degrees of ‘vertical’ coordination can be observed. The paper concludes that there continues to be a degree of ‘in-the-making’ to the multilevel governance of employment relations, even in the presence of common challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided political momentum for social and legal change in occupational health in slaughterhouses in Germany. After years of unsuccessful scandalisation over the precarious working conditions in slaughterhouses, a comprehensive legislative framework was introduced in 2020: the Federal Occupational Health and Safety Control Act ( Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz ). This article traces the political and legal events leading to the enactment of this legislation, contributing to a wider empirical debate about the interaction of civil society and democratic institutions. Methodologically, we combine a legal analysis of the legislative process with a political science analysis of the participation of civil society actors, mainly labour unions. Theoretically, we explore how civil society actors translated the content of political claims into legal arguments through the lens of disciplinary translations and knowledge translation. The results of our study highlight the importance of translations as a hermeneutic concept for bringing about legal changes.

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the demands on employees and companies for handling mental stress and resources. A mixed-methods design was used to examine contrasting occupational groups, i. e. IT service workers (IT), and care workers and home helps providing social care (SC) in clients’ homes. First, this paper analyses how the mental health of both occupational groups was affected by the pandemic. Second, the potential of risk assessments for mental health (RA-M) for developing health-promoting organisations is investigated. While the first question is analysed with quantitative company surveys before and during the pandemic, the second question draws on qualitative company case studies. The quantitative survey shows few differences in health outcomes for the occupational groups during the observation period. In contrast to social care employees, IT employees were able to work at home. The social care employees show a greater fear of infection and report little influence over their work. In IT, the lack of direct contact with colleagues was perceived as stressful, while improvements in work autonomy were reported. The case study findings show that implementing RA-M contributed to reducing work-related stress and to fostering health-related resources. RA-M-based workplace interventions proved to be overarching social innovations that extended beyond OSH by improving work structures and enabling health-sensitive organisational development.

This paper examines two research questions. First, we investigate whether specific occupational groups experienced changes in the recognition they received during the Covid-19 crisis. Second, we analyse whether occupational recognition can promote compliance with infection control measures. In addition, we distinguish between a micro-level of job recognition and compliance in the direct working environment on the one hand and a macro-level of recognition of occupational groups and general acceptance of infection control measures on the other. We find that health care occupations and “basic occupations” (essential occupations that do not require formal training) report an increase in recognition received by society during the pandemic, but still perceive the lowest levels of recognition overall. These groups also report lower levels of political recognition and do not feel adequately remunerated. Furthermore, occupational recognition has a positive impact on compliance with infection control measures. We identify institutional trust as the most important mediator. While occupational recognition in the immediate work environment has the greatest impact on micro-level compliance at the workplace, occupational recognition at the macro-level is relevant for accepting closures of public facilities, various restrictions and the intention to get vaccinated.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for occupational safety and health. The protection of disabled and other vulnerable employees (risk groups) is no exception. For these groups of employees, the special hazards and risks associated with the workplace must be given special consideration. This article presents our study of company practices for dealing with risk groups, with particular reference to remote working constellations, and shows that the involvement of employee representative bodies has a positive impact on the scope and quality of protective measures. However, the low level of involvement of employee representatives in the planning and implementation of protective measures is problematic. The results are from an online survey of 1543 representatives of works and staff councils and representatives of severely disabled people in Germany.