The challenge of improving work health and safety in global supply chains: Institutions and evidence of effectiveness

The challenges for work health and safety (WHS) posed by global supply chains (GSCs) are well known. In a comprehensive review of the literature on the effectiveness of private and public regulatory measures upon relations within and around these chains, this article explores ways to improve prevention practices and their outcomes for WHS. It concludes there are a range of regulatory approaches utilised to achieve improvements but to be effective they require politically supported interventions and better orchestration at global and national levels. Whether, as recent literature suggests, the 2022 amendment adding WHS to the International Labour Organization’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights is able to serve as a catalyst for this remains to be seen. Without such support and the political will to drive interventions, however, the analysis suggests that the current operational weaknesses of regulatory approaches to supporting WHS in GSCs are unlikely to be remedied.

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