Latest impact case study
OHS regulation and enforcement
The regulator’s role in setting and enforcing the adoption of basic standards is fundamentally important to ensuring the health, safety and fair treatment of workers and the productivity of workplaces. Therefore, it’s important for occupational health and safety (OHS) systems to know what will best achieve this. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) conducts a wide range of research to help labour ministries, workers' compensation boards and other regulatory bodies (and those affected by them) understand where their limited time and money will be most effectively allocated to achieve fewer work-related injuries and illnesses.
Latest news and findings
Media release - Worker injuries due to falls from heights declined after training made standard and mandatory: study
November 3, 2023 (Toronto, Ontario)—In the three-year period after Ontario made working-at-heights training in the construction sector standardized and mandatory, the rate of fall-from-height injuries leading to time off work fell by 19 per cent, a study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) has found.
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Media Release - Addressing work conditions to improve public health: a series in The Lancet
October 12, 2023 (Toronto, Ontario)—Working conditions can have an impact on health and unequal health outcomes across the population. As a result, decision-makers from across different government departments should take greater note of work as a social determinant of health. That is a key message from a series of three papers published today in one of the world’s leading medical journals, The Lancet.
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IWH researchers create roadmap for AI research that prioritizes worker health
What are the most urgent research questions on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on worker health and safety? Using expert insights, an IWH team has developed a four-part agenda to guide AI research and spark conversations between workplaces, workers and regulators. Its goal is to ensure worker health and safety are at the forefront of AI policy and adoption in the workplace.
Read about the agenda
Role of IWH research in changes to B.C. legislation on claim suppression
After an IWH study filled a research gap on claim suppression in B.C. and helped make the case for change, the province amended legislation to strengthen protections against the practice.
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WSIB Health & Safety Excellence Program makes use of IWH safety culture measure
A version of the IWH-Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM) is used by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to let workplaces in its Health and Safety Excellence Program measure their safety culture against a benchmark. The measure also allows the compensation agency to track trends in safety culture over time among participating organizations.
Read about this use of research
