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The extant literature underlines the inadequacies of legal and policy frameworks addressing the safety and health concerns of sandstone mineworkers in India. Notably, Rajasthan, a state renowned for its extractive industries, mirrors these concerns. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to critically evaluate the relevant legal and policy landscape, with an emphasis on the recent central statute: the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code of 2020 (OSHWCC). Given that the Code subsumes the key legislation pertaining to the safety and health of mineworkers, an in-depth critical analysis is essential to forge suitable policy interventions to address continued gross violations of human rights.

The critical analysis of legal and policy frameworks on silicosis in sandstone mineworkers is based on a comprehensive reading of existing literature. The literature includes relevant laws, case law, reports of the Rajasthan State Human Rights Commission and National Human Rights Commission, publicly available data and key scholarly contributions in the field.

Although the OSHWCC has made some changes to the existing regulatory architecture of mines in India, it has failed to safeguard the safety and health of mineworkers. Notably, the vast majority of mines in India – constituting approximately 90%, which are informal, seasonal and small-scale – remain beyond the jurisdiction of this Code. In Rajasthan, there are specific policies on silicosis, but these policies are poorly implemented. There is a serious shortage of doctors to diagnose silicosis cases, leading to under-diagnosis. The compensation for silicosis victims is insufficient; the distribution mechanism is complex and often delayed.

The central and many state governments have not established the regulatory institutions envisaged under the OSHWCC 2020; therefore, the working of the regulatory institutions could not be critically examined.

The paper critically evaluates laws and policies pertaining to silicosis in sandstone mineworkers, with a special emphasis on the state of Rajasthan. It offers a comprehensive critique of the OSHWCC of 2020, which has not received much attention from previous studies.

Deployment of health and safety standards in extremely hazardous work environments such as oil and gas sector, is essential to minimise accidents leaving employees permanently or temporarily incapacitated. The purpose of this research, is to understand why there are frequent accidents in case country's oil and gas sector, with a view to recommend solutions to mitigate problems.

Research methodology involved extensive review of the literature to appreciate background, and current research on typical accidents and safety measures taken at oil and gas construction sites to minimise accidents in a middle east country. Interviews, questionnaires and case stidies were deployed to acquire data which highlighted major reasons for accidents occurrence at oil and gas construction sites, and safety tools and techniques that could reduce accident rate if adopted by companies.

Findings, showed that oil and gas construction projects in case country were prone to health and safety related risks, challenges and accidents due to failure to comply with standards and legislation. Construction site teams and shop floor staff were rarely involved in development of safety policies, and some had no understanding of requirements and procedures underpinning safety during operations. Research recommended rapid application/adoption of international standards underpinned by ISO 45000 series and staff training at all levels. Deployment of robots and use of machine learning technology were suggested to implement risky tasks in the sector.

Research was based on rampant accidents occurring in hazardous oil and gas sector in country studied. Enforcement of health and safety standards, and use of modern tools and techniques were recommended to minimise accident rate.

The authors compare perspectives on external evaluation of health service provision between Norway and the USA. External inspection and accreditation are examples of internationally wide-spread external evaluation methods used to assess the quality of care given to patients. Different countries have different national policy strategies and arrangements set up to do these evaluations. Although there is growing attention to the impact and effects on quality and safety from external evaluation, there is still a gap in knowledge to how structures and processes influence these outcomes. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to describe the structures and processes in external evaluation designed to promote quality improvement in Norway and the USA with attention to comparison of enablers and barriers in external evaluation systems.

Data collection consisted of documentary evidence retrieved from governmental policies, and reviews of the Joint Commission (the US), international guidelines, recommendations and reports from the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and the World Health Organization, and policies and regulations related to Norwegian governmental bodies such as the Ministry of Health and Care Services, the Norwegian Directorate of Health, and the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision . Data were analyzed inspired by a deductive, direct content analytical framework.

The authors found that both accreditation and inspection are strategies put in place to ensure that healthcare providers have adequate quality systems as well as contributing to the wider risk and safety enhancing management and implementation processes in the organizations subjected to evaluation. The US and the Norwegian external regulatory landscapes are complex and include several policymaking and governing institutions. The Norwegian regulatory framework for inspection has replaced an individual blame logic with a model which “blames” the system for inadequate quality and patient harm. This contrasts with the US accreditation system, which focuses on accreditation visits. Although findings indicate an ongoing turning point in accreditation, findings also demonstrate that involving patients and next of kin directly in adverse event inspections is a bigger part of a change in external inspection culture and methods than in processes of accreditation.

The message of this paper is important for policymakers, and bodies of inspection and accreditation because knowledge retrieved from the comparative document study may contribute to better understanding of the implications from the different system designs and in turn contribute to improving external evaluations.

Although there is a growing attention to the impact and effects on quality and safety from external evaluation, the implications of different regulatory strategies and arrangements for evaluation on quality and safety remain unclear.

Despite the contributions of both the oil and gas and construction industries to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country, both industries are still marred by incessant accidents. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the health and safety practises of the construction and oil and gas industries in Nigeria in order to suggest the best approach to health and safety practices.

A survey questionnaire was developed and administered to professionals working in the construction and oil and gas industries. Data were analysed using the relative importance index (RII). An independent sample t-test was also conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the construction and oil and gas industries.

The study revealed that the rate at which health and safety are practised in the oil and gas industry is comparatively high compared to how they are practised in the construction industry. Proper site layout and planning, provision of a safe working environment, proper health and safety risk assessment were more predominantly practised in the oil and gas industry, while proper site layout and planning, disallowing unauthorised entry into site and the provision of a safe working environment were predominantly practised in the construction industry.

This study is the first to compare the health and safety practises of the construction and oil and gas industries in Nigeria. This study was significant because it would provide insight into construction and oil and gas managers, as well as other decision-makers in both industries, on how to improve health and safety practices.

The purpose of this article is to determine safety culture indicators that can improve the health and safety performance of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) contractors in Ghana.

A three-round Delphi method was used. The first round consisted of 31 experts out of which 18 of them rated their agreements with a set of 87 potential safety culture indicators using a 10-point Likert scale of importance (1 = important and 10 = very important) and the 16 experts who completed the final round were given the opportunity to suggest other indicators. The 87 indicators were categorised into 14 core health and safety elements. Indicators that attained a group median value of 5–10 for 50% or more expert ratings were accepted.

At the end of the third round, a consensus was reached on the indicators when they attracted median scores of 5–10 for at least 50% or more of the health and safety experts rated the indicators between 5 and 10. Out of a total of 87 indicators at the start of the Delphi process, the consensus was reached on 70 that were retained.

The health and safety experts were not given the opportunity to add new indicators to the structured questionnaire until the third round.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to have a consensus by health and safety experts on leading indicator metrics of positive culture of construction safety in Ghana for improved SME construction company’s health and safety performance in Ghana. If these indicators are adopted and used effectively in Ghana, they would ensure positive culture of construction safety and subsequently help to protect construction workers.

The emerging industrial revolution referred to as Industry 5.0 is focusing on leveraging human creativity with intelligent and autonomous systems to derive user-friendly work environment for the businesses. Industry 5.0 stresses on people centric work ecosystem, zero accident policy and the well-being of labour within the production processes. This approach of Industry 5.0 to obtain human-centric safety solutions through the deployment of digital technologies deduces workplace accidents and costs leading to the development of Safety 4.0. This chapter aims to investigate the opportunities and challenges of Safety 4.0 and its enabling technologies aspiring towards the greater impact on safety management. Further, we have proposed a framework for the role of human centric digital transformations concerning safety in the manufacturing industry propelling Safety 4.0. Concluding, we discuss the implications for managers and practitioners. We found that Safety 4.0 will strengthen industrial safety, and instead of reacting to accidents, the concept evolved towards a preventive and proactive approach for a healthy industrial ecosystem.

This paper explores the reasons why Indonesia must have legal regulations to provide protection and guarantees for health workers in carrying out the profession in overcoming corona virus disease (COVID-19). This paper also explains the legal regulations as the foundation for today’s medical workers’ protection. This paper also aims at providing an ideal legal construction that safeguards the rights and obligations of health workers in overcoming COVID-19.

In this paper, the author used qualitative research methods with a socio-legal approach. The data were obtained through literature study and analysis of laws and regulations through the socio-legal method.

Various challenges and professional risks taken by health workers in dealing with COVID-19 derive from several factors, such as shortage of personal protective equipment, ineffective implementation of informed consent from the patients and the negative stigma spreading in the community. Moreover, the current legal regulation has not particularly modulated the protection of health workers, relying only on available articles that are actually irrelevant to be applied in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research is focused on problems faced by health workers in combating COVID-19 and law concessions to ensure their protection.

The final results of this research will be useful for The House of Representatives (DPR), the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenkes RI) and the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) in establishing legal and regulatory construction for the protection of health workers in tackling COVID-19.

This research aims at strengthening legal protections for the health workers so that their rights and obligations are well guaranteed.

This paper proposes an ideal legal construction for the protection of health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently still not specifically and rigidly regulated, to realize a guaranteed and sustainable life for health workers.

Almost four years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the changes in the labour market and legislation, but also in people's lives, do not stop. At the same time, employees' perceptions regarding the change in the legislative and contractual framework, as well as in the working conditions and the use of telework, also change. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to identify the perceptions of employees regarding the use of telework in the post-pandemic period.

The research was based on a survey carried out on 128 teleworkers in the post-pandemic period. The statistical hypotheses were tested using Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Kruskal–Wallis tests, multiple linear regression and pairwise comparison analysis.

The results of the study demonstrate that the modification of the legislative and contractual framework and of the working conditions, as well as of the way of using information and communication technology in the post-pandemic era, generates a positive and significant impact on the use of telework by employees. Some of the main advantages valued by teleworkers included the possibility of benefitting from a flexible work schedule and the possibility of reducing transport costs.

The study highlights the need to continuously develop and update labour policies and strategies in line with current and future labour market requirements, considering the implications of telework on the perceptions of employees, so that government organisations and managers who want to protect the rights and interests of teleworkers, aspects of their lives and organise an appropriate work environment manage to do so in order to achieve the expected results.

The construction business is widely recognised for its inherent complexity and dynamic nature, which stems from the nature of the job involved. The industry is often regarded as one of the most challenging industries globally in terms of implementing environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices. However, in the absence of EHS, the construction industry cannot be considered sustainable. Therefore, this study aims to identify the trends, knowledge gaps and implications of EHS research to enhance construction activities and knowledge.

The study adopted a science mapping approach involving bibliometric and scientometric analysis of 407 construction EHS publications from the Scopus database with the VOSviewer software. The study is based on journal articles from the Scopus database without restriction to any time range.

The main focus of construction EHS research identified in the study includes sustainability-related studies, risk-related, environmental issues, EHS management, integrated management systems studies, health and safety related and EHS in the construction process. Some emerging areas also identified include productivity, design, culture, social sustainability and machine learning. The most influential and productive publication sources, countries/regions and EHS publications with the highest impact were also determined.

Documents published in the Scopus database were considered for analysis because of the wider coverage of the database. Journal articles written in English language represent the inclusion criteria, whereas other documents were excluded from the analysis. The study also limited the search to articles with the engineering subject area.

The research findings will enlighten stakeholders and practitioners on the focal knowledge areas in the EHS research domain, which are vital for enhancing EHS in the industry.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this review-based study is the first attempt to internationally conduct a science mapping on extant literature in the EHS research domain through bibliometric and scientometric assessments.

This empirical study of one of China's biggest take-out platforms during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) explores the legal rights and protections for gig workers' availability time.

The study uses a quantitative survey and interviews of take-out platform riders, investigating the intrinsic features of working time and availability time. Labour law professionals and scholars are interviewed to verify the findings.

The availability time of take-out platform riders is difficult to define under the current legal working-time framework. There is a need for a specific method to define availability time, considering the multiple factors in gig-take-out-sector work. One option is to apply working-time regulations to availability time but to use a proportionality test to preserve flexibility whilst the platform offers protection to the riders during that time.

Pandemic-related travel restrictions limited the authors' study to one take-out platform in Beijing. Future studies should cover a wider geographical area and multiple take-out platforms.

The study uniquely evaluates the availability time of take-out platform riders to determine appropriate public policy and theoretical implications. It proposes a proportionality test regulating riders' availability. In particular, the workers being “at leisure” during availability time could mitigate the platform's liability for full remuneration or moderate the ceiling of working hours. The occupational health and safety of riders must be fully protected, as they are still “at the platform's disposal” at that time.