Working Conditions Flashcards
How does Income impact Health? Income and Determinants
- Income is associated not only with outcomes, but with ‘determinants’, including behaviours
- Income determines access to various resources
- Housing, food, transport, medical care, etc.
- Income affects levels of stress, including chronic stress
- Income affects both our environments, and the resources we have available to respond to these environments
Working Conditions: Unnatural Causes (In sickness and in wealth)
- While income affects lifestyle factors, these are insufficient to explain differences in countries (like Canada) with universal healthcare
- The association between income and health outcomes can also, in part, be linked to working conditions
- Those in lower income bracket more likely to experience stress from job insecurity and job related stress; more likely to face workplace hazards
“Good Job”-> characteristics valued by workers
- income (crucial but not sufficient)
- non-wage benefits
- job security
- opportunities for advancement
- provides interesting and personally rewarding work
- some level of autonomy
- skill development
- healthy and safe work environment
- work-life balance
- valued relationships with co-workers
- democratic control over the work process
7 Dimensions of Employment
- Job and employment security
- physical conditions fo work
- work pace and stress
- opportunities for self-expression and individual development
- working time
- work-life balance
- participation at work
Why is a good job hard to find?
-Following financial crises of 2000s, rising unemployment and job insecurity
-Intensification and casualization of work
-Number of part-time jobs increasing faster than full-time
jobs
-Self-employed workers increasing faster then paid- employees
-Increase in precarious employment and piecing together of multiple income streams
-Terms of employment impacted by
-workers bargaining power, usually through unions
-Government regulation
-Ability to shift production to lower-cost regions with fewer regulations
-Neoliberal retreat of state → fewer regulations
Job Security
- Canadian workforce increasingly characterized by instability and frequent transition
- Short-term unemployment alternating with precarious employment
- Traditional focus on long-term unemployment insufficient
- Unemployment rates do not capture
- Precarious work or short-term employment Underemployment (want more hours)
- Those who have stopped looking
- Precarious income more likely to be low-income; more likely to be held by women, recent immigrants and people of colour
Health Effects of Precarious Employment
-Source of significant stress and anxiety
-Lack of income
-Uncertain prospects about the future
-Undermine social support networks
-Less likely to experience job satisfaction Higher risk of injury and illness
-Greater workload (esp. at smaller firms)
-Greater incidence of pain at work
-Less likely to have access to employer-sponsored health benefits
-Prescription drug coverage; dental; physical therapy; glasses;
counselling etc.
-More likely if in a union; less likely if at small firms, part-time, or temporary
-Less likely to have pension coverage
-Less likely to have sick leave and/or paid vacation time
Cumulative Effect
good/healthy jobs more likely to include coverage
Job Security and Public Policy
-Job security is affected by legislation (or lack thereof) that limits employers’ ability to lay off workers; e.g. limits on renewal of temporary contracts; make it difficult to fire long-term employees
Pro-union Legislation
gives workers greater collective bargaining power
Impact of precarity heightened by lack of social safety net, including health benefits…
- Belief that the unemployed must be encouraged to find work through punitive welfare system
- Belief that is welfare is too generous, people will choose not to work
- Helps keep poor working conditions acceptable and reduces worker bargaining power
Employment insurance impacts effects…
-In Canada; rules that disqualify those who patch together work; haven’t worked enough prior to being let go
Physical Conditions of Work
- > Work related death, disease and injury due to material conditions (902 workplace fatalities reported in 2013)
- > Risk varies by industry (gender and age)
- Fishing, trapping, agriculture, hunting and forestry most dangerous Finance and insurance least dangerous
- Men more likely than women to die on the job
- > More likely to be taken seriously/reported at larger firms – unions, formal rules, training
- Shift to smaller, non-union workplaces and sub-contracting undermines physical safety
- > Workplace fatalities and injuries appear to be falling
- Believed to be underreported
- May not include new forms of injury
Physical Conditions of Work
- Physical injuries; sprains, back strain, lacerations → associated with physically demanding jobs (manufacturing, construction, strenuous sales and service work)
- Rise in repetitive strain and soft-tissue injuries → repetitive machine work and keyboard work
- Rise in musculoskeletal pain and chronic back pain
Occupational diseases related to exposure to risk factors…
- E.g. lung disease and cancer linked to inhalation of toxic fumes, handling of hazardous chemicals, exposure to carcinogens
- Chronic conditions and disease that develop over time; difficult to identify exact cause and thus to make compensation claims
Physical Conditions and Public Policy
- > Health and safety regulations, inspection and fines for non-compliance
- Yet steps to improve regulations may incentivize non-disclosure
Who is included in regulations?
- Self-employed workers not covered by government health and safety regulations
- Contract employees covered, but may not know/report
- Vulnerable populations not protected– e.g. seasonal agricultural workers who come to Canada under temporary work permits
Workers compensation can help offset impact of physical injury…
- Not designed to deal with new forms of injury (chronic, non-visible)
- Demands high standard of proof re cause and effect that may not be available;
- > e.g. carcinogens present in workplace and general environment; stress and physical exertion not confined to workplace
Workplace Control & Stress
Workplace stress related to pace, demands, and control
High Strain jobs
- > combine high demands with low level of decision making
- Minimal control over how you do your job
- Lower use of skills and skill development
- More likely to be low-income work; sales and services work More likely to be held by women than men
High strain jobs are associated with…
- High blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, and long-onset diabetes
- Twice as likely to experience depression as those in same age range, socioeconomic status and with same social supports
- Lower level of control associated with higher rates of injury; even if work is physically demanding
What % of Canadian workers describe their lives as “extremely” or “quite a bit” stressful?
27
How does precarity exacerbate workplace stress?
-makes the job more stress, while lowering ability to reject working conditions
Opportunities for Self-Development
-Desire for interesting, challenging jobs and opportunities to develop skills
-Access to training → opportunity to develop skills and advance to more
challenging and rewarding work
-More common in ‘high-skill’ professional jobs requiring higher education
-Barriers to training/development include lack of time, resources, and employer support
-More ‘efficient’ for employers to minimize need for skills rather than develop them
-More than 1⁄4 Canadians, and 40% of those under 25 feel overqualified in current job
-Employers often overlook skills and credentials of new immigrants → low paid jobs that do not offer advancement
