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The subject of occupational safety and health (OSH) is increasingly gaining the interest of policy makers and researchers in European countries given that the economic and social losses from work‐related injuries and diseases are quite substantial. Under this light, this paper aims to present an overview of the Greek legislation framework regarding OSH issues, and the current status of empirical research on the subject in Greece. In addition, the paper seeks to identify the knowledge gaps and methodological shortcomings of the existing literature in order to contribute towards future research in the OSH field in Greece.

The authors conducted an extensive literature review of numerous publications, reports and institutions' databases.

The results suggest that empirical up to date research in Greece is rather inadequate, mainly because of the absence of econometric methods to validate the findings. The available Greek databases indicate that while the number of working accidents has decreased over time, the severity seems to be increasing. Males are more prone to accidents, diseases and negative working conditions. Work‐related stress is an aspect of occupational problems that has been the subject of many Greek studies.

Although the legal framework is quite adequate, there is a need for both prevention strategies and enforcement of the existing safety regulations. Furthermore, a substantial research gap is observed in Greece. Therefore, more systematic research is needed on the determinants of injuries and on their effects on job participation and productivity.

The paper presents a detailed review of the current state of research regarding OSH issues in Greece.

The construction industry contributes significantly to national economic growth and offers substantial opportunities for job creation; however, the industry has continually been plagued by workplace accidents. Moreover, employers may not realize the economic magnitude of workplace injury and ill health arising from construction activities. These accidents represent a considerable economic and social burden to employers, employees and to the society as a whole. Despite governments and organisations worldwide maintaining an ongoing commitment towards establishing a working environment free of injury and disease, a great deal of construction accidents continues to frequent our society. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of a sample of 100 construction accident reports to establish, as far as practically reasonable, the total costs of limited types of construction accidents. Costs attributable to each of these accidents were classified either as direct or indirect costs. Through an exhaustive and time-consuming investigation of all available records from various sources and/or kept in various departments, the individual costs were correlated to the various direct and indirect categories.

This particular study is a combination of explanatory and collective case study approaches, whereby causal effects are determined or a course of events is examined from multiple cases. The preferred form of data collection is left to the researcher to decide (Yin, 2003). When a researcher is considering “how” or “why” questions, a contemporary set of events using primary and secondary documents, over which the researcher has little or no control, the case study approach is feasible (Yin, 2009).

The costs of construction accidents for the same sample of 100 construction analysed in this study has been estimated at a staggering R32,981,200. Of this total, R10,087,350 has been attributed to direct costs and R22,893,850 has been attributed to indirect costs. The costs of construction accidents are based on four cost components: sick pay, administrative costs, recruitment costs and compensation and insurance costs. It should be noted that the estimates of the costs to employers presented in this study are reflective of the activities and incidents of the reviewed organisation and may not necessarily represent another organisation. The costs of construction accidents values presented in this study reveal that construction accidents present a substantial cost to employers and to the society at large, inclusive of both the direct and indirect costs. It is therefore in the best interest of the employer to identify progressive and advanced approaches to more effectively manage construction health and safety, consequently society at large will benefit tremendously.

Given the high rate of construction accidents experienced, employers are not entirely mindful of the actual costs of construction accidents, especially when considering the hidden or indirect costs of accidents. Various safety research efforts have attempted to quantify the true costs of worker injuries; however, localised systematic information on cost of construction accidents at work is not readily available from administrative statistical data sources; therefore, this study was carried out to estimate the costs, like lost workdays or lost income, are clearly visible and can readily be expressed in monetary value; for a large part,0 however, economic consequences of accidents are somewhat hidden.

In a large scale survey of almost 2,500 medical professionals working in practice throughout Germany, a comprehensive questionnaire was designed to assess diverse socio‐demographic factors, as well as job‐related features such as occupational stress, work satisfaction and working climate, and attitudes towards safety and risk‐taking. Clinical outcome risk variables were also monitored, including on‐site accidents and driving accidents. An attempt was made to apply Lisrel analyses to provide a more detailed insight into the multidimensional nature of the interactions between the various categories of data. Background and personal variables (demographic and attitudes towards risk‐taking and safety‐consciousness) have differential effects on accident behaviour. Overall, on‐site accidents (within the medical practice) were directly and exclusively related to risk‐taking, in contrast to moving vehicle accidents, which were determined by gender, recklessness and safety consciousness. The results explained 6‐7 per cent of the variance which, whilst small, was significant, and more importantly, offers information and implications for understanding accident‐related behaviour.

The paper aims to examine health and safety in the workplace.

The paper discusses violence in the workplace.

The Home Office and Health and Safety Executive produced a joint report which showed that by far the highest “at risk” group in terms of actual physical violence were workers in the security and protective services. They were closely followed by nurses, care workers, public‐transport workers and people working in the hotel and catering trade, education and retail.

The paper provides useful advice on work‐related accidents or violence.

The purpose of this paper is to identify various individual factors and combinations thereof that can contribute to truck drivers’ occupational accidents, particularly connected to work performed outside the cab in various work environments.

In total, 74 accidents were analysed through in-depth interviews with truck drivers. These interviews were conducted employing the critical incident technique, and analysed utilising a qualitative content analysis approach.

The contributing factors identified were categorised into 14 categories. In all, 13 of these were grouped into four sections reflecting the drivers’ work outside the cab: “Goods and equipment”, “Loading/unloading area”, “Loading/unloading tasks”, and “Organisation”. A single risk factor was associated with 40 accidents while the other 34 involved combinations of factors.

Although the tasks performed by truck drivers in different countries are probably similar, one limitation might be that all the accidents characterised occurred in one country: Sweden.

The findings reveal that complex combinations of risk factors often contribute to accidents. In addition to the transportation company itself, other stakeholders, such as clients, and designers and manufacturers of technology, may influence the occupational safety of truck drivers. Different stakeholders who could contribute to managerial decision making that is designed to prevent accidents are identified and discussed.

This investigation contributes to an in-depth understanding of the causes of accidents in the transportation industry. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the stakeholders and safety management in an attempt to identify key stakeholders who can improve accident prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new non-technological innovation concerning management processes in organization, focussing on occupational health promotion as a part of social responsibility (SR). Employer’s occupational health promotion includes systemic and systematic activities for good employees’ social, physical and mental health; synergy is suggested.

A qualitative analysis using SR, dialectical systems theory and human resource management is applied.

A healthy company can be built by occupational health promotion, which must take place socially responsibly and requisitely holistically.

Qualitative analysis is applied in desk and field research on Slovenia.

The novel socially responsible, requisitely holistic approach to managing employee’s health, exposing personal and corporate SR prevents oversights and resulting failures.

Available literature offers no similar concept.

Driving for work has been identified as potentially one of the riskiest activities performed by workers within the course of their working day. Jurisdictions around the world have passed legislation and adopted policy and procedures to improve the safety of workers. However, particularly within the work driving setting, complying with legislation and the minimum safety standards and procedures is not sufficient to improve work driving safety. This chapter outlines the manner in which safety citizenship behavior can offer further improvement to work-related driving safety by acting as a complementary paradigm to improve risk management and current models and applications of safety culture.

Research on concepts associated with risk management and theoretical frameworks associated with safety culture and safety citizenship behavior are reviewed, along with their practical application within the work driving safety setting. A model incorporating safety citizenship behavior as a complementary paradigm to safety culture is proposed. It is suggested that this model provides a theoretical framework to inform future research directions aimed at improving safety within the work driving setting.

This study aims to explore the factors influencing electrical accidents. Here, the authors aim to understand and model the causes of electrical accidents at multiple levels.

In the study, the authors have tried to put causes of accidents in the electricity distribution segment, in the framework of the Swiss Cheese model. Delphi kind of expert survey was conducted to find the Cheese Slice (level) and the causes (holes) for electrical accidents. Inputs from a hundred experts having more than five years of experience in electrical utility companies have been used to find Cheese Slice and holes, to explain the occurrence of an electrical accident.

Effective training for safe work practices, safe knowledge and closer supervision would go a long way to plug the holes in the Cheese Slice in human factors. The difference in perception of managers, supervisors and workers on the importance of various causes of electrical accidents are also presented and discussed.

This research is based on expert opinion and survey where respondent perception is reported. Actual accident data has not been used here.

The holes or causes of accidents at different levels (Cheese Slice) have been identified for plugging or removal for better safety.

Electrical energy is widely used, and therefore, electrical safety is a social concern and also improving it is a social need.

The study contributes to electrical safety issues in the electrical utility sector.