Determinants of Workplace Occupational Safety and Health Practice in Spain

Abstract This paper considers the determinants of workplace health and safety practice in Spain. By outlining the historical evolution and current arrangements for occupational safety and health on the one hand, and the current labour market and health and safety outcome contexts on the other, it identifies a number of key influential factors. These include the way in which health and safety institutions and roles have developed, the country’s entry into the EU and the subsequent legislative and structural developments, and the relative position of health and safety management within organisations’ management processes more generally. The paper concludes by reflecting on the influence of significant ‘political’ events on the context in which occupational safety and health challenges, and responses to them, develop.