Background
Methods
Design
Participants
Procedures
Category | Grouping | n (%) |
---|---|---|
Sex | Female | 17 (53.0) |
Male | 15 (47.0) | |
Age Range | 35–44 | 6 (23.0) |
45–54 | 9 (34.6) | |
55–64 | 11 (42.3) | |
Missing | 6 | |
Marital Status | Married/Partnered | 16 (80) |
Single/Separated/Divorced/Widowed | 4 (20) | |
Missing | 12 | |
Education | High school or less | 4 (15.4) |
Trade school or some university/college | 7 (26.9) | |
University or college degree | 12 (46.2) | |
Post-graduate | 3 (11.5) | |
Missing | 6 | |
Primary language spoken | English | 22 (68.8) |
French | 5 (15.6) | |
Other | 5 (15.6) | |
Mechanism of injury | Assault | 4 (14.3) |
Fall/slip | 9 (32.1) | |
Motor vehicle collision | 4 (14.3) | |
Struck by/against object | 11 (39.3) | |
Missing | 4 | |
Industry/Sector | Education | 5 (17.9) |
Business & Administration, Sales & Service | 6 (21.4) | |
Healthcare | 5 (17.9) | |
Manufacturing, Primary Industry | 7 (25.0) | |
Security, Trades & Transportation | 5 (17.9) | |
Missing | 4 |
Data collection
Interview section | Examples of questions asked |
---|---|
The injury and how it occurred | Describe what happened, step by step, in as much detail as you can recall. |
Training and supervision received by workers | Did you ever receive training related to your health or safety? If so, please describe what topics were covered. Were training requirements understood; and were you satisfied with the length and quality of the training you received? |
Prevention of the injury | Looking back, what do you think might have prevented the injury from happening? |
Data analysis
Results
Hazardous work conditions
Workers in other sectors similarly found themselves often being instructed by their employer to do tasks without sufficient training. For example, an immigrant worker (Worker 905) from the trades sector recounted that his employer asked him to disassemble a steel floor approximately 20 ft high despite not have training to work at heights:[I had] 4-6 hours [of] training just to show you where everything is and that’s it. After that, you’re on your own… But I was [trained on the] surface like I didn’t go underground with the truck [before]…And they were practising [with] me how to park and how to back up and all that. (Worker 901)
I don’t feel comfortable. I don’t feel comfortable with......that height…. [My supervisor]…didn’t tell me nothing [about how to work at that height]… he said... just go there... they should [have gotten] somebody [else].
[T]here’s not enough training…there should be something…[where] you learn about autism…there should be a certain training level if you're going to have a child like that in your class…Like you can't just be thrown in there and kind of learn it on your own. (Worker 027)
A Francophone education worker who was hit in the head by a child throwing a broom faulted government policy that sets the minimum standard for education worker/student ratios: “Normally…in Kindergarten we have two person[sic] with…30 children…but for lunch time…you…have only one…I am…opposite[sic] on this decision from the government…But have to just …obey” (Worker 902).The support's getting less and less every year…every year it's dropping, so that we're…having to supervise these…students [with anger management issues] and then on top of that the other few hundred [students] that are out on the [school] yard…with three adults in the yard…That’s an unsafe situation. (Worker 045)
Across all of the work sectors, participants reported exposure to hazards in the physical work environment. For example, a worker from the trades sector tripped and hit his head on a ¾ inch bolt that was sticking out from the concrete at a worksite. He angrily stated: “Those bolts were all through the building… [my boss]…should have got a grinder and ground them off…because they were tripping hazards” (Worker 036). When he returned to the worksite following his hospitalization, he noted: “Somebody took a spray can, an orange spray can, and…spray painted all the bolts. And then I went back about a month later and they were all…ground off”.My company [typically]… pays people…to tell people [on the ground] ‘do not approach this area ‘cuz they are working up there’…but this company that was doing this job [above me] did not do this…so, myself and my partner, we were not aware that they were replacing those fences [above our heads]. There should always be someone in that area to …alert people [about] what’s going on. (Worker 025)
Conditions, values, and commitments: The context for workers’ decision-making
Extrinsic factors, such as fear of reprisal were cited by some workers as the reason for their counter-resistance. The education worker who was injured by a tetherball aptly illustrates how potent this fear is. She explained that this was her second injury due to the same circumstances and that after her first injury she approached her supervisor with the request that the tetherballs be removed from the schoolyard, but her request was ignored. When asked why she continued to work despite being refused the safety measures she requested, she stated:[W]hen the supervisor asked me to go there I refuse[sic]…I said no, that’s not my job, because it’s not my job [But]…he said... just go there. (Worker 905)
Despite awareness of unsafe working conditions, and even awareness of the right to refuse unsafe work, the decision to continue to engage with established working arrangements and practices without any resistance was common in the workers’ accounts. In these cases, workers described how they chose to put themselves in harm’s way because of their identification with organizational values and professional commitments such as the prioritization of the needs of clients. For example, reflecting on home care management, a worker who was injured by hitting her head on a shelf in a client’s home exclaimed:Most of us will always comply and look after the student first and then have to worry about our own self afterwards. And there really isn't anything in place to protect the employee. And you're really frowned upon if you refuse [the work]…They'll just ship you off to Timbuktu if you raise a stink in any way. (Worker 045)
Here, the worker is speaking of an organizational ethos of putting the client before the worker, which over time normalizes acceptance of unsafe working conditions and suppresses resistance. Indeed, when asked how she felt about working in such unsafe conditions, she said, “I guess you put up...with more than you should. It…makes you kind of numb to it… or not aware.”[The organization] emphasize[s] get treatment done at all costs…the emphasis is on patient care and patient safety…It’s always the [home care workers] who have a responsibility to their clients but never that…my [employer] has a responsibility to the [home care worker] to ensure their safety….It's kind of like get it done however you have to. (Worker 009)
In further reflecting on the danger of the situation, she noted: "[I] thought...just...get out and, you know, save yourself. But that's not my job. I have to act as a parent would act and, you know, he was threatening to hurt himself."[I thought] I can't lock him in there…so I opened the door, just to make sure he was okay…he snapped [a broom] in half and then came at me and was trying to spear me with the broom. And then I would close the door and…look in the [door] window and [could see] he was trying to spear himself in the stomach. So I would open the door and then he would try and spear me…I don't even know how long this went on. (Worker 003)