Although occupational safety and health (OSH) is a core element of social policy, OSH had rarely been in the focus of social policy research in the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this special issue brings together state-of-the-art theoretical and empirical insights underlining the connection between OSH and social policy. It contains articles from different academic disciplines dealing with the following broad topics: actors and institutions involved in OSH, OSH policies and measures, and social inequalities related to OSH. The special issue makes three contributions. First, it puts a traditional and highly relevant but under-researched topic back in the focus of attention. Second, it revives the debate by providing interdisciplinary insights on a number of key topics of relevance. Third, these insights have strong implications for policymaking; they are thus of high practical relevance and could contribute to enhancing the protection of workers in the post-pandemic labour market.

This article is published in the Journal "Zeitschrift für Sozialreform" (2023).