Health and Safety in Small Firms with Particular Reference to Spain

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Abstract
MIKE RIGBY IS HEAD OF DMSION OF HUMAN Resource Management, South Bank University, London, England; Teresa Lawlor is Professor of Contemporary Spanish Studies at Kingston University, England. This paper, through a review of relevant literature, first develops a best practice model for intervention in SMEs to improve health and safety performance. It then reports a research project which examined the role of intermediaries in improving SME performance in health and safety in Spain. The research found a high degree of congruence between the best practice model and the reported cases of successful intermediary intervention. The successful interventions emphasised the importance of outreach activity which stressed to SMEs the short-term economic advantage of taking action and which targeted companies with poor accident records. The successful intermediaries exhibit a high degree of sectoral specialisation and tended to be quite prescriptive in their approach. A high degree of collaboration between intermediaries including enforcement agencies, insurance companies, employers' associations and trade unions was particularly likely to result in effective interventions. In addition, successful interventions tended to have a strong regional identity. Within these general parameters a variety of different models of intervention were successful. The paper finally considers the relevance of the findings of the research to a more regulated business environment such as the UK.

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