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 11 th - 13 th, 2010

Themes of this seminar Psycho-social hazards Precarious employment Prevention policy and actors Workers’ health Gender

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 ( ) – Telephone interviews, approx. 30 minutes – Minimum 8 weeks work; minimum 15 hours per week – 15 years or older – N= ,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 violencePsychological 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 Temporary Involuntary part time Involuntary self- employment Precarious contracts Recent unemployment (employment insecurity) Agrees that current job is insecure Job insecurity

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 distress Psychological harassment Work accidents Psychological harassment

Psychological distress and psychological harassment

Work accidents and psychological harassment

Prevention Legislation on psycho-social hazards General duty clauses Legal and policy issues Labour inspectors Worker representatives Actors

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