How do labour inspections deal with the transformations of work?

The transformations of work and the weakening of organised labour have forced labour inspections across the world to rethink the way they monitor labour law and occupational safety and health standards. This article explores the challenges these changes pose to labour inspections, as well as the strategies they have adopted to meet them, through a systematic-narrative review of 75 articles, books, and book chapters published from 1990 to 2023 in the field of industrial relations. We identified the impact of structural transformations in the labour market (globalisation, tertiarisation, digitalisation, demographic and political changes) on the fragmentation of firm organisation and industrial relations. In response, labour inspections have implemented three types of strategies: (1) internal restructuring; (2) diversified and combined approaches to workplace monitoring; and (3) cooperation with other regulatory bodies. Our review discusses the strengths and limitations of these strategies, emphasising the importance of the resources available to labour inspections and of workers’ participation. We thus contribute to the debate around the regulation of work in the twenty-first century.