Effects of Regulatory Tools on Work Environment and Employee Health
Condition: Occupational Health; Sick Leave; Occupational Exposure
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study evaluates the effects of the Labour Inspection Authority's regulatory tools on
      workplace exposures to prevent employee ill health. Norwegian municipal enterprises with
      employees in the home care sector have been randomized to three different experimental groups
      and to one control group. We hypothesize a significant lower level of work environmental
      exposures and health complaints, after adjusting for pre-intervention measures, in the
      experimental groups compared to the control group.
    

Detailed description: 
      A variety of work environmental exposures are shown to cause ill health. Compliance with
      occupational health and safety legislation and regulation is assumed to prevent work-related
      ill health. The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority oversees that enterprises comply with
      the requirements of the working environment laws and regulations. The agency possesses two
      key regulatory tools to ensure compliance, i.e. inspections and guidance.

      Inspections are used to check whether enterprises meet legal requirements. If inspectors
      reveal violations to legal requirements, the Labour Inspection Authority may respond with
      orders, coercive fines, and shutdown of operations and in worst-case report enterprises to
      the police.

      Guidance are used to notify the enterprises of the legal requirements pertaining to work
      environmental standards, and to advice the employers and employee representatives concerning
      the most effective means of realizing compliance with the legal requirements.

      Enterprises randomized to the experimental groups will receive one of three different
      intervention activities from the Labour Inspection Authority, i.e. targeted inspection
      visits, participation on a one-day workshop led by two inspectors on how to reach compliance
      with occupational health and safety (OHS) standards, or participation in an online risk
      assessment course for conducting written objectives in relation to health, environment and
      safety activities.

      The interventions will be carried out at the organizational level (enterprise), whereas the
      effects of the interventions on working environment and health complaints will be measured at
      the individual level (employee). Two months before the Labour Inspection Authority perform
      their interventions, a baseline questionnaire assessing self-reported organizational,
      psychosocial and mechanical work factors and health complaints will be sent to all home-care
      workers employed in the included municipal enterprises. The effects of the different
      interventions on work environment and employee health will be evaluated through questionnaire
      measurements 6, 12 and 20 months post interventions.
    

Intervention name(s): Inspection visits; Guidance workshops; Online risk assessment tool
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Normative intervention aimed at enforcing compliance with legal occupational health and safety requirements; Pedagogical intervention aimed to motivate managers and employee representatives to comply with legal occupational health and safety requirements; Pedagogical intervention aimed to motivate managers and employee representatives to comply with legal occupational health and safety requirements
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: cluster-randomized controlled trial
Masking: Single (Investigator)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Mental Distress; Musculoskeletal Pain; Work-related; Cluster Randomized Trial; Effect Evaluation