ABSTRACT
Over the last few decades, globalisation has been responsible for a trend amongst western organisations to relocate parts of their operation beyond domestic markets to other regions around the globe.
Typically, this involves shifting production into labour-intensive sectors in the developing world, where the cost of transporting goods is offset against the low wages of the local workers – and where enforced safety legislation is often negligible.
In this chapter, we’ll consider how globalisation has affected – and continues to affect – the global economic landscape, how it has impacted both rich and poor regions and what it is likely to mean for the future of Occupational Safety and Health, if greater regulation isn’t imposed on the operations of multinational organisations setting up abroad.
