Sick Building Syndrome and the Industrial Relations of Occupational Health

Sick Building Syndrome has joined occupational stress and repetitive strain injury as one of the major causes of ill health among white-collar workers. Like these other complaints its legitimacy as a genuine cause of ill health is frequently contested by management, reflecting attitudes towards both the environment and the place of health and safety on the industrial relations agenda. An analysis of how the problem was raised by the workforce in five office locations, the responses by management and the eventual outcomes suggests that active workplace trade unionism is more likely to effect remediation of the working environment than either external union activity or non-union HRM practices.