Occupational Health: A Social Perspective

Levy Wegman Chapter 2

Overview: Social Context

• Questions to Ponder• History• Global Context• Labor – Management Relations• Specialists

Questions to consider:

• Asphalt fume has been identified as a carcinogen in Denmark. Why is it regulated as an “air contaminant” and not a carcinogen in the U.S.?

Questions to consider:

• There is less full-time work, more temp work, more work speed-up, and more shift work, all of which increased physical and psychological health problems. Are solutions solely scientific and technical?

Questions to consider:

• A major transnational auto company has clear internal guidelines for reviewing equipment to prevent hearing loss. Why are these guidelines ignored?

Questions to consider:

• What can economically challenged workers or countries do when confronted with the choice between jobs or health?

Social Reform

• A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of the society rather than rapid or fundamental changes.

• In your sphere of influence, or in the world at large, what is in need of social reform?

History

• People need work to survive, yet it is more than a way to earn a living. What rewards and problems does work present?

• What is the context of work?

History

• Occupational diseases and injuries are the direct, although unintended result of economic activity.

History

• Little attention focused on occupational health due to pursuit of wealth and technology

• Industrialization • Maximize profit• Speed of machine• Economic necessity of work

History

• Social Reform in Europe• Context: government intervention, paternalism,

powerful workers movement• Factory inspections• Laws restricting working hours and conditions for

women and children• Unions illegal, punishable by execution

History

• Knights of Labor• Secret society of tailors in Philadelphia in 1869• All working people, including women and blacks• Used educational means to further its aims

• an 8-hour day• abolition of child and convict labor• equal pay for equal work

History

• Importance of Labor Unions• Benefits to members: unemployment, ill health, old

age and funeral expenses • Collective bargaining• Industrial action (strikes, lockouts)• Political activity

History

• Importance of Labor Unions • Negative aspects

• Insider outsider theory• Strength of general economy• Level of unemployment• Level of government support for protecting and promoting rights of workers

History• Workers Compensation

• Absolute right to medical care for that injury• Monetary payments to compensate for resulting

temporary or permanent disabilities • Employee forfeits the common law right to sue the

employer• Employer benefits by receiving immunity from court

actions against them by the employee in exchange for accepting liability that is limited and determined

• The question of negligence or fault is usually not at issue

History

• Importance of WWII• Healthy workforce indispensable to the war

Global Context

Global Context

• Changes in world economy• Heavy manufacturing to service (loss of 38 million

jobs)• Mobile and international corporations• Industry in the hands of a few large firms, increasingly

under the banking and finance center• Unable to uphold “social contract” with labor

Global Context

• Pressure toward:• Decreased public spending• Weakening of governmental regulation• Privatization of state industries and services• Eradication of social welfare spending

Management Theory

• Taylorism: performance and craftsmanship versus tasks

• Cooperation with management to avoid need for unions

Structure of Work

• Influence of technology• Perform rapid and repetitive motions• Pace of work and life increases• Pressure to work longer hours• Automation: rather than eliminating mindless labor,

has led to more stress, longer hours, and more responsibility

Distribution of Power

• The people affected are not the people deciding the acceptability of workplace hazards

…Imagine the universal outcry that would occur if every year several corporate headquarters routinely collapsed like mines, crushing sixty or seventy executives. Or suppose that all the banks were filled with an invisible noxious dust that constantly produced cancer in the managers….

(Levy & Wegman, 2000, p. 35)

Impact of Racism

• Minorities are overrepresented in the most hazardous and least desirable occupations

• Hazards at work, hazards at home

Impact of Racism

How does racism relate to injuries and illnesses?

Impact of Sexism

• Women’s issues• Pay• Balancing work and home life• Targets of sexual harassment

Labor Management Relations

• Lack of control• Workers interests conflict with those of

management• Job blackmail• Forces besides union that improve occupational

health:• Corporate reputation (PR)• Cost of replacing labor

Organized labor

• Collective strength counters management power and control

• Collective bargaining• Negotiation of work rules, grievance mechanisms,

complaints• More likely to know hazards• Shield against discrimination

Work and Labor• American workers

• 92% work for other people• 25% have professional, supervisory or managerial

positions• Majority find jobs, do what they can to keep them• Some work, most labor with little control

• Unemployment is more destructive to physical and mental health than a hazardous job

Governmental Impacts

• Regulations• Increase health and safety• Increase perceived cost of doing business

What is the context of work?

• Opportunity to guide your life and do meaningful things (control and socialization)

• Modern, evolving structure of work is formed by others, resulting in lack of integrity, autonomy, and creativity for reasons of efficiency, productivity and profit

What is the context of work?

• The technology machine• Increase of service sector

• Clerical work has same machine like analysis and control as factory work

• Story on p. 42• Alienation and powerlessness

Specialists

• Occupational health professionals• Scientific, technical investigation, research and

protocols• Underestimate the importance of the social,

political, and economic contexts of work and injury