So, what’s different now? Maybe what’s fuelling the sense of urgency now is that the speed of change seems to be rapidly increasing. Or perhaps it’s that in this information age, the speed in which we learn about changes and the effects of those changes are almost immediate. Or, maybe it’s because while we know in our hearts that the nature of work is changing, and the workforce is changing right along with it, we don’t have the hard evidence or the statistics to prove that risks of accidents, injuries and negative health effects are changing right along with them.

This is also the conundrum facing OHS researchers, notes Danièle Champoux, a scientific professional at Québec’s Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST).

“New problems that are anecdotally visible in work milieus don’t always show up in statistics,” Champoux says. “There is a lag in time before trends, such as the effects of current economic situation, globalization, etc., are visible in statistics.”

Moreover, while statistics give the quantitative picture, the qualitative face of work is not reflected - for instance, the difference between the formal task (job description) versus doing what one has to do to get the job done, she says. This, coupled with the time lag in the effects of change on statistical information, makes it difficult for researchers such as those at the IRSST to get buy-in for studies dealing with the effects of change on accident prevention.

There is an “invisibility to new risks,” Champoux says, “so effects of the changing work context are not yet entirely visible and it can be difficult to convince IRSST board to fund projects meeting the priority and pertinence criteria.”

Using more of a European approach to study the sociological aspects of work organization, IRSST social scientists believe there is a broad spectrum of factors affecting accident risks and prevention strategies. Champoux says they believe that for prevention to be truly effective, it must also be sustainable. Broad approaches are needed to address those broad factors and to achieve sustainable prevention.

Movement of the workforce
Interestingly, their research and statistical analyses have found that risks are not in industries where one would naturally think of finding them: for instance, in the construction, forestry and petroleum industries. As work and the economy shift from primary industries and manufacturing to services jobs, the risks are also moving to other industries, such as health care.

In theory, work in the service industry might seem less risky, says Champoux, but indications of new risks are arising. The service sectors encompass lots of different types of workplaces from hairdressers to health care, some of which are “highly precarious.”

In addition, many of the workers in the services sector have no permanent status; they often work for agencies, change jobs frequently and have no union. A growing part of the labour force, many have hardly any training, are often paid less, and are not always given sufficient information on the potential risks of their jobs. Yet, these workers often have few alternatives but to work and be exposed to risks.

The IRSST is not the only organization studying the effects of change on the workforce and working conditions. The Institute for Work and Health in Toronto released two studies last summer that found, among other things, that immigrant men were more than twice as likely to have work-related injuries requiring medical attention than their Canadian counterparts. Moreover, immigrants were:

- 30 per cent less likely to work full-time,
- 65 per cent less likely to have employment benefits, and
- twice as likely to work in physically demanding jobs and/or in an unskilled job.