Regulating Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation in Canada for the Mobile Workforce: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t

Abstract

Although much research has examined the occupational health and safety (OHS) and workers’ compensation (WC) implications of precarious employment and temporary international labor migration, little is known about the implications of diverse types of employment-related geographic mobility for regulatory effectiveness of OHS and WC. This article examines different types of extended mobility to determine regulatory effectiveness of OHS and WC protections. Based on classic legal analysis in seven Canadian jurisdictions, and interviews with key informants, we found that the invisibility of the internally mobile workforce, as well as the alternating visibility and invisibility of temporary foreign workers, contribute to reduced effectiveness of the OHS and WC regulation. Results point to the need for better protections to address working conditions, but also the hazards and challenges associated with mobility itself including getting to and from work, living at work, and maintaining work–life balance while living at the worksite.

Travel Time as Work Time? Nature and Scope of Canadian Labor Law’s Protections for Mobile Workers

“…A worker injured while traveling will access workers compensation only in cases where the travel is considered to arise out of/in the course of employment, as is discussed in more detail in Lippel and Walters. 99 Aside from a few distinctions explicitly governed by statute in Quebec, in all other provinces studied, travel time issues are determined by case law. Nonetheless, several overarching interpretation principles can be identified in all provinces, the first being the degree of control exercised by the employer over the worker.…”

The Role of the Unitary Prevention Delegates in the Participative Management of Occupational Risk Prevention and Its Impact on Occupational Accidents in the Spanish Working Environment

“…In this context, we can conclude that the system has entered a kind of spiral of constant deregulation of working conditions that has a negative impact on workers’ health (for example, in Table 5 we have seen how temporary workers and, above all, those belonging to subcontracting companies report more occupational accidents) and, in turn, prevents worker participation and the monitoring and control of their representatives, which feeds back into the spiral of deregulation. Thus, in addition to reversing this trend, it is necessary to activate a participatory culture in the workplace, developing knowledge and skills in safety and health through joint training systems for representatives and management that improve and clarify roles [ 70 ] and quality circles in occupational safety and health in which prevention delegates and workers participate [ 65 ].…”

Occupational Health and Safety Challenges From Employment-Related Geographical Mobility Among Canadian Seafarers on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway

“…In Canada, researchers find that bad weather, poor road conditions, and long commuting may all present OHS challenges for workers. 21 However, the implications of commuting mobility for seafarers are not sufficiently considered in the current OHS legal frameworks in Canada. One study shows that for the first fifteen days on board, international seafarers are more likely to be injured than after ninety days on board.…”

“…The underreporting of safety accidents has been identified in previous studies on international safety management. 24,62 The isolated working environment makes seafarers, like others working in remote worksites 21 , an invisible work force. Furthermore, the "safety bonus" practice encouraging accident underreporting contributes to the invisibility of the OHS issues confronting seafarers.…”

“…Lippel and Walters 21 address the policy challenges associated with E-RGM and OHS by looking at four aspects of the life of mobile workers: getting to work, being at work, living at work, and living at home. The interview schedules were designed according to this framework to inquire as to the challenges faced by the Canadian seafarers with regard to these four aspects.…”