Work precarity and vulnerability

Precarious employment has become more common in the Canadian labour market, as well as in the labour markets of other high-income countries. In this presentation, Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi examines the consequences of precarious employment for health and safety at work. Drawing on compensation claims data from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and labour force estimates from Statistics Canada, Dr. Shahidi asks whether workers exposed to precarious employment – such as temporary, part-time, and low-wage jobs – are more likely to experience an occupational injury or illness. As a further source of evidence, he also assesses the impact of precarious employment on the workplace transmission of COVID-19.

Published: February 2024

Drawing on a survey of Canadian workers, a recent study found that lesbian, gay and bisexual workers reported lower job quality than their straight counterparts. That’s according to a study co-led by an IWH researcher and IWH Syme award recipient, the most comprehensive study to date of job quality among sexual minority workers.

Published: January 2024

Published: Sexuality Research and Social Policy, January 2024

Published: SSM - Population Health, December 2023

In an Australian study of five health and safety leading indicator tools around the world, a measure developed by IWH has come out ahead for its ability to pick up workers’ risk of reporting a physical injury or a near miss at work.

Published: February 2023

IWH researchers found workers whose jobs fail to offer minimum employment standards are at an increased risk of work injury. When these workers also face health and safety vulnerability on the job, their risk of injury is even higher than the combined risk.

Published: August 2021

We know that being out of work puts people at risk of short- and long-term health consequences—including higher death rates. A new study looks at whether—and how much—having income support during unemployment can lessen the negative impact.

Published: June 2021

Workers at small firms are more exposed to hazards and report more work-related injuries and illnesses. But an IWH study finds injury risks in large and small firms even out when weaker OHS policies at small firms are accounted for.

Published: May 2021

This project applies an intersectional theoretical framework to explore the impact of the future of work on the transitional work experiences of vulnerable groups of young people—including women, visible minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ2+, and those with low socioeconomic status—and to uncover the overlapping structures that contribute to labour market inequities for different groups.

Status: Completed

Workers with disabilities are no more likely than those without to work in precarious jobs. However, some subsets of people with disabilities are more likely to work in precarious jobs—older people or people with shorter job tenure. Contrary to expectation, younger people with disabilities are not more likely than older people with disabilities to have precarious jobs. Among people with and without disabilities, having better health is linked to a lower likelihood of working in precarious jobs.

Published: February 2021