The regulation of workers participation in safety and health at work in the collective bargaining: a missed opportunity?

EUROSTAT data illustrates that Portugal is one of the European countries with the highest incidence of work accidents. Notwithstanding, some progress has been recently accomplished, particularly concerning fatal accidents. This fact derives from the efforts undertaken as of the 90s, when actual public policies in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) began to be delineated and to which social partners associated themselves. This has evidenced to be a field where broad consensus is possible, at least among the peak organizations with seat in the Social Concertation Commission (CPCS). Another privileged place for dialogue is collective bargaining. Hence, it is important to assess to what extent the regulation of workers participation in OSH has been conducted at this level. This article has inherent an extensive analysis of the new conventions and those fully reviewed or partially reviewed with consolidated text, published between 2010 and June 2013 in the official journal Boletim do Trabalho e Emprego (BTE). It was concluded that most conventions either ignore this issue or merely remit its regulation to the legislation in force, whilst others appear as a mere transcript of the law or segments thereof. There are scarce conventions that comprise developments when compared to the stated in the law. The factors that explain the aforementioned shall be duly discussed herein.