Immigrant workers are a vital and important part of Canada’s labour market. One in five Canadian workers is an immigrant and, as of this year, immigrants are expected to account for all of Canada’s net labour force growth.
Yet, immigrant workers are among Canada’s most vulnerable when it comes to their health and safety on the job. This was raised in the report of the Expert Advisory Panel on Occupational Health and Safety, which submitted its recommendations to the Ontario Minister of Labour in December 2010.
The Panel was appointed last year to examine Ontario’s occupational health and safety landscape. It came in the wake of a horrific workplace accident on December 24, 2009, when four migrant construction workers died and a fifth was seriously injured after their swing-stage platform snapped 13 stories above the ground.
Based in part on Institute for Work & Health (IWH) research findings, the Panel acknowledged that immigrant workers are vulnerable for a number of reasons: not knowing their legal rights, working in jobs without experience or hazard-specific training, and being unlikely to raise health and safety issues for fear of losing their jobs. It therefore recommended that Ontario’s health and safety system “develop information products in multiple languages and formats for distribution through various media and organizations” to raise awareness of OHS among immigrants and other vulnerable workers.
IWH Scientist Dr. Agnieszka Kosny and her team are already on the job, developing information and training modules for immigrant workers on their rights and responsibilities under employment, occupational health and safety and workers’ compensation legislation. And they’re working with settlement agencies to get the information out.
Full text and link to resources at IWH's At Wor-newsletter: http://www.iwh.on.ca/at-work/64/ohs-information-tool-for-newcomers