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Psycho-social hazards, precarious employment, occupational health policy and practice: through a gender lens Katherine Lippel University of Ottawa CRC in OHS Law Proyecto Araucaria seminar, Santiago, January 11th - 13th , 2010 Themes of this seminar Psycho-social hazards Precarious employment Gender Prevention policy and actors Workers’ health Importance of gender considerations • Men and women do different jobs • Even when they occupy the same positions, their working conditions are different – Because of biological differences – Because of socially driven differences • These differences are important in understanding occupational health – Messing, 1998, 2003, 2006 Examples from a Québec study (EQCOTESST) • Representative sample of the Québec working population (2007-2008) – – – – Telephone interviews, approx. 30 minutes Minimum 8 weeks work; minimum 15 hours per week 15 years or older N= 5240 • 53,1% Men; 46,9% women • All results significant (.05) unless otherwise mentioned Preliminary results Psycho-social hazards Job strain • High demand • Low control • Karasek model Effort reward imbalance • High effort • Low reward • Siegrist model Emotionally taxing work Low social support Occupational violence Psycho-social hazards and gender Occupational violence • Physical violence • Psychological harassment (mobbing) • Sexual harassment Gender and exposure to occupational violence (n.s.) Prevalence of psychological harassment/education/gender Work family balance • Working conditions can support or undermine a worker’s ability to juggle work and family responsibilities • Women assume a greater responsibility for family obligations (care work; domestic work) • When working conditions impede reconciliation of these obligations, they constitute psycho-social hazards (i.e. unpredictable scheduling) that adversely affect women workers in particular. • Cloutier, 2009; Albertsen et al 2008; Williams, 2008. Precarious employment Precarious contracts • Temporary • Involuntary part time • Involuntary selfemployment Job insecurity • Recent unemployment (employment insecurity) • Agrees that current job is insecure Precarious employment/gender n.s Prevalence of psychological harassment and job insecurity Prevalence of psychological harassment and precarious contracts (n.s.) Prevalence of sexual harassment and precarious contracts Similar results • Gender differences in prevalence of psychological and sexual harassment – Parent-Thirion et al (Eurofound), 2007 • Job insecurity and psychological harassment – Baillen & DeWitte, 2009 • Sexual harassment and temporary employment – Lamontagne et al, 2009 – Baillen et al, 2006 Health associations •Psychological Psychological distress harassment •Work accidents Psychological harassment Psychological distress and psychological harassment Work accidents and psychological harassment Prevention Legal and policy issues Actors • Legislation on psycho-social hazards • General duty clauses • Labour inspectors • Worker representatives Gender differences in perceptions • Women and men perceive and interpret situations of harassment differently – Depending on the gender of the observer – Depending on the gender of the observed – Salin, 2008 What are the implications for inspectorates, worker representatives and health and safety committees? Challenges • How can inspectorates, decision makers and worker representatives be better equipped to deal with psycho-social hazards? • Is specific legislation necessary or useful? • How can we best implement policy in a way that takes into consideration the effect of gender in relation to – exposure – evaluation of risks – health consequences
