Narratives of risk in occupational health and safety: why the ‘good’ boss blames his tradesman and the ‘good’ tradesman blames his tools

Risk and its control are important themes in occupational health and safety. In the current regulatory framework, risk is conceptualised as a probabilistic expression of hazard potential. However, social meanings of risk in the workplace may be different. The social context of work shapes the ways that risk is understood in the workplace, yet little research in occupational health and safety acknowledges it. A few studies of risk have used qualitative research methods to elicit understandings of risk at work; however, little research explores the experiences of both employers and employees. This study describes the narratives of risk in occupational health and safety of employers and employees in the Victorian painting industry. Using ethnographic methods, we collected data about the contexts in which risk is experienced and the sources of risk that each group identifies. These narratives reveal that risk in the painting industry is constructed through the interactions of three factors: the social context, the hierarchical structure of the industry and the shared assumptions about risk control through individual skills and responsibilities. The narratives explain why occupational health and safety strategies focusing solely on individual behaviour change or technical measures will be unsuccessful.