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Workshops are not enough: Making right‐to‐know training lead to workplace change
Author(s) -
Michaels David,
Zoloth Stephen,
Bernstein Nancy,
Kass Daniel,
Schrier Katherine
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/ajim.4700220503
Subject(s) - right to know , medicine , empowerment , government (linguistics) , training (meteorology) , public relations , occupational safety and health , citizen journalism , medical education , economic growth , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , pathology , meteorology , political science , economics
The underlying intent of Right‐to‐Know laws and regulations is to improve workplace conditions through worker empowerment. These regulations require employers to educate their employees about the nature and hazards of toxic substances found in the workplace, and methods to reduce exposure. This paper describes a Right‐to‐Know training program for over 4,000 local government employees which involved workers, their union, and management in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the program. A combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation determined the program was successful at individual, group, and structural levels. The evaluation results suggest that Right‐to‐Know training programs can make an important contribution to improving workplace health and safety when they are a well‐integrated component of a comprehensive safety and health program: they use participatory training methods, they are tailored to address specific conditions faced by the participants, and there is active labor‐management collaboration.