Question

List and describe the challenges to the “Free Market Approach” to Health & Safety.

Answer 1

The main challenges to the “Free Market Approach” to Health & Safety are as below:-

The labour markets are not perfectly competitive and free. The market forces are always playing their role in the supply and demand of the labour in the labour market. This will impose a greater restriction on the healthcare facilitation in a free market. The employee will not have the free choice which is represented by the theory of free market for having optimal satisfaction. The employees will be forced to accept the job as they do not have any other opportunity. They are not having the balanced choices for risk in comparison to the wage demand as no alternative is provided to them.

The second challenge is that the kind of complete information which is required in the free market is not available to the manpower. If the different types of risks associated with the job are not informed or known to the employees, they will not be able to bargain their wages and thus they will not be able to protect their rights.

Any individual will never ask the questions related to the public safety that has to work in a risky job. In most of the cases, the questions related to the public policy and social justice are ignored. The questions related to health and safety are addressed from the point of view of an individual rather than looking at the social perspective.