Test, test, and test again
There is no way around this, in order to refactor code, you need a solid set of tests. Refactoring code may well reduce the chances of introducing bugs, but changing the design of code introduces a significant amount of chances to introduce new bugs.
Unintended side-effects will occur during refactoring, where classes are tightly coupled, you may well find making a minor change to one function leading to a negative side-effect in a completely separate class.
Good refactoring effects require good tests. There is simply no way around this.
In addition to this, from a more political standpoint, some companies which have encountered the bad effects of repetitively bad refactoring efforts may become reluctant to refactor code; ...
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