Occupational health and safety legislation is an essential part of the process to manage organisations and
companies. However, there are criticisms that the regulation of occupational health and safety could be restricting
the impulses of innovation and industrial development. This has led to proposals to repeal regulations to
reduce the regulatory burden when possible. This work aims to delve into the difficulties that organisations
encounter in their attempts to comply with occupational health and safety legislation and manage the process
effectively. A systematic review was conducted of published studies that have analysed the relationship between
occupational health and safety (OHS) management and compliance with legislation, regulations and rules. The
search for relevant publications mainly used international bibliographic databases and scientific search engines.
Quotes from other authors were also examined. This review provides knowledge on how compliance and noncompliance
with legislation influences daily health and safety management in companies. The review highlights
and discusses both successful regulatory strategies and the main difficulties, weaknesses, limitations and challenges
companies face when adopting and complying with these regulations. This study concludes that management
of legal compliance in companies, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises has become a
complicated task. Management of occupational health and safety systems should not only be based on prescriptive
principles and the detection of non-compliance, but also on proactive principles including an examination
of how legal compliance affects daily performance.
