Preventing and Managing Natural and Environmental Disasters: Employment Protection, Welfare and Industrial Relations Systems

This paper sets out to evaluate the reliability of the firmly established distinction between natural disasters environmental and technological ones focusing on the consequences relating to labour law and industrial relations. Due to the unpredictability of natural disasters, welfare systems traditionally support the victims and the areas affected through temporary and emergency interventions. On the contrary, environmental and technological hazards are deemed preventable, therefore legal authorities are usually tasked with establishing their causes and determining penal, administrative or civil sanctions for those responsible. The question arising from the foregoing considerations and which this paper seeks to answer is whether labour law, industrial relations and welfare systems can provide a contribution to the prevention and the proactive management of disasters.