a b s t r a c tWhen there are safety representatives (SRs) at the workplace higher levels of preventive action have been observed. However, no study has analyzed workers' health and safety results when workers (do not) know they have SRs. Based on data from the VII Spanish Working Conditions Survey (2011), this paper explores differences in the intensity of self-reported preventive action among workers reporting to have SRs at their workplaces, workers reporting not having them, and workers unaware of SRs' existence. The sample included employees aged 16-65 years working at firms with 6 workers or more (n = 5562). A multinomial logistic regression was undertaken to study the association between the reported existence of SRs and levels of preventive action (high, intermediate and non-existent), comparing workers unaware of SRs' existence to those reporting to have SRs and those reporting no SRs. Models were adjusted by socio-demographic and employment-related features. It was found that workers reporting SRs' existence were protected by greater preventive action, both at the intermediate (aOR = 2.87, 95% CI 2.39-3.44) and high level (aOR = 10.26, 95% CI 7.27-14.50), and that there were no statistically significant differences between workers reporting not to have SRs and those unaware of SRs. Our results draw attention to a group of workers who might have SRs without being aware of it and remain less protected by preventive action. These workers would benefit from interventions aimed at making SRs known and available to all workers.

Interaction with workers is influenced by a more prevalent technical-legal view of the SRs' role and by unequal power relations between workers and management. Poor interaction with workers might lead to decreasing SRs' effectiveness.

The action of health and safety representatives (HSRs) has proven beneficial for workers’ occupational health, but a number of determining factors can diminish HSRs’ effectiveness. One understudied factor shaping HSRs’ effectiveness is the interaction that exists between workers and HSRs, that is, the relationship that workers and their representatives establish with each other throughout a wide range of processes. In this paper, we explore the workers’ knowledge and opinions of their interaction with HSRs and its determinants. We undertook a qualitative exploratory and descriptive-interpretative study by means of 22 semi-structured interviews with a theoretical sample of workers from Barcelona and Girona (Spain). Results show a vast unawareness of HSRs’ existence and functions among workers; only the few workers who know the HSRs personally describe interaction processes with them, mainly concerning hazard identification. Some of the workers mentioned processes of interaction with unions regarding health and safety at work. These processes consist mainly in raising issues with union representatives and, in a more limited way, in associating with occupational health mobilizations and participating in decision-making processes. Determining factors of the interaction between workers and -health and safety or union- representatives emerge strongly in relation to representatives and workers and, in a more diluted way, with regard to the context or the firm. The study contributes to the research concerning the building of relations of representativeness as a way to better understand (and represent) workers’ needs and provides strategic insight for collective representation bodies to regain their legitimacy.