International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Review Occupational Health Hazards: Employer, Employee, and Labour Union Concerns Oscar Rikhotso 1,* , Thabiso John Morodi 1 and Daniel Masilu Masekameni 2 1 Department of Environmental Health, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa;
[email protected] 2 Occupational Health Division, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Parktown 2193, South Africa;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +27-123-824-923 Abstract: This review paper examines the extent of employer, worker, and labour union concerns to occupational health hazard exposure, as a function of previously reported and investigated com- plaints. Consequently, an online literature search was conducted, encompassing publicly available reports resulting from investigations, regulatory inspection, and enforcement activities conducted by relevant government structures from South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of the three countries’ government structures, the United States’ exposure investigative activities con- ducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health returned literature search results aligned to the study design, in the form of health hazard evaluation reports reposited on its online database. The main initiators of investigated exposure cases were employers, workers, and unions at 86% of the analysed health hazard evaluation reports conducted between 2000 and 2020. In the synthesised literature, concerns to exposure from chemical and physical hazards were substantiated by occupational hygiene measurement outcomes confirming excessive exposures above regulated Citation: Rikhotso, O.; Morodi, T.J.; health and safety standards in general. Recommendations to abate the confirmed excessive exposures Masekameni, D.M.