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Nous avons analysé le rapport annuel produit en 1999 par l’Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail du Québec et nous avons constaté que, dans les professions et secteurs concernés par les études financées, le pourcentage moyen de femmes est de 15 % (comparé à 45 % de femmes parmi la population au travail). Douze populations étudiées sont équilibrées ou composées en majorité de femmes, et 76 sont composées d’hommes à plus de deux tiers. Le montant moyen accordé aux études sur une population équilibrée ou majoritairement composée de femmes était de 86 339 $ comparativement à 114 480 $ pour les autres. Nous considérons plusieurs hypothèses d’explication de ces différences. Nous concluons que, peu importe la cause, un effort soutenu de recherche ciblée vers les emplois des femmes est essentiel, en plus d’une analyse différenciée en santé au travail.

The article reviews the book, "La santé des femmes au travail en Europe : des inégalités non reconnues," by Laurent Vogel.

Reviews the book "Occupational Health of Women in Non-Standard Employment," by Urla Zeytinoglu, Josefina Moruz and M. Bianca Seaton and Waheeda Lillevik.

Award-winning ergonomist Karen Messing is talking with women—women who wire circuit boards, sew clothes, clean toilets, drive forklifts, care for children, serve food, run labs. What she finds is a workforce in harm’s way, choked into silence, whose physical and mental health invariably comes in second place: underestimated, underrepresented, understudied, underpaid. Should workplaces treat all bodies the same? With confidence, empathy, and humour, Messing navigates the minefield that is naming sex and biology on the job, refusing to play into stereotypes or play down the lived experiences of women. Her findings leap beyond thermostat settings and adjustable chairs and into candid, deeply reported storytelling that follows in the muckraking tradition of social critic Barbara Ehrenreich. Messing’s questions are vexing and her demands are bold: we need to dare to direct attention to women’s bodies, champion solidarity, stamp out shame, and transform the workplace—a task that turns out to be as scientific as it is political. --Publisher's description. Contents: Part 1: Shame and the Workplace. The third hour -- Shame and silence in health care -- A feminist intervention that hurt women? Part 2: Segregated Bodies. Jobs and bodies -- Same, different, or understudied? Part 3.Changing the Workplace: Re-engineering women's work -- Looking the dragon in the face -- Feminist ergonomic intervention with a feminist employer -- Solidarity. Part 4: Changing Occupational Health Science. Science and the second body -- Understanding women's pain -- The technical is political -- Going forward together. Index.

Les femmes participent de plus en plus au marché du travail, mais les normes et pratiques qui s'appliquent à la santé au travail ont été élaborées à un moment où les travailleurs étaient surtout des hommes. En 1990, les secteurs d'activité désignés comme étant les plus prioritaires pour l'intervention par la Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail du Québec avaient un taux de masculinité qui s'élevait à plus de 85 %. Dans cet article, nous démontrons une certaine exclusion des femmes de la prévention en santé au travail, nous donnons des explications pour cette exclusion et nous proposons des mesures de correction.

Language barriers are often cited as a factor contributing to ethnic inequalities in occupational health; however, little information is available about the mechanisms at play. The authors describe the multiple ways in which language influences occupational health in a large garment factory employing many immigrants in Montreal. Between 2004 and 2006, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 women and 10 men from 14 countries of birth. Interviews were conducted in French and English, Canada's official languages, as well as in non-official languages with the help of colleague-interpreters. Observation within the workplace was also carried out at various times during the project. The authors describe how proficiency in the official languages influences occupational health by affecting workers' ability to understand and communicate information, and supporting relationships that can affect work-related health. They also describe workers' strategies to address communication barriers and discuss the implications of these strategies from an occupational health standpoint. Along with the longer-term objectives of integrating immigrants into the linguistic majority and addressing structural conditions that can affect health, policies and practices need to be put in place to protect the health and well-being of those who face language barriers in the short term.

Les horaires atypiques imposés compliquent la conciliation travail-famille (CTF), particulièrement lorsqu’ils sont associés à un travail impliquant un bas salaire, un faible contrôle sur le travail, ou du temps partiel involontaire. Un nombre grandissant de travailleuses et de travailleurs sont exposés à ces horaires, mais peu d’études se sont intéressées aux stratégies de CTF déployées pour faire face à ces conditions contraignantes. Les seuls accommodements possibles reposent souvent sur des ententes informelles. Ces ententes sont fragiles et individuelles et, de plus, elles sont marquées par les rapports avec un gestionnaire ou des collègues. Elles exercent aussi une pression importante sur le collectif de travail, ce qui peut venir limiter la marge de manoeuvre permettant de concilier les deux réalités, c’est-à-dire l’espace nécessaire afin d’adapter sa tâche en fonction de son contexte et de ses capacités.Notre étude interdisciplinaire (en communication et ergonomie) porte sur les stratégies de CTF d’agentes et d’agents de nettoyage, un emploi comportant des horaires atypiques imposés et un faible niveau de prestige social. Cet article porte sur les facteurs organisationnels et les dynamiques relationnelles qui influencent la marge de manoeuvre d’agentes de nettoyage qui, pour concilier horaires atypiques et vie familiale, font le choix de travailler la nuit.L’analyse des données provenant d’observations et d’entretiens met en évidence l’interaction entre le choix de l’horaire de travail, le soutien des collègues et les rapports liés au genre ainsi qu’à l’ancienneté. En situant les stratégies de CTF au coeur de l’activité de travail, nos résultats permettent d’illustrer les tensions collectives suscitées par l’accommodement des besoins individuels de CTF.Améliorer les marges de manoeuvre visant à concilier vie familiale et horaires atypiques nécessite d’intervenir simultanément sur l’organisation du travail et les dynamiques relationnelles afin de favoriser l’émergence de pratiques collectives de soutien autour des enjeux de CTF. Ces dynamiques doivent être prises en compte lors de la mise en place de mesures organisationnelles, voire même de dispositifs légaux ayant pour but de faciliter la CTF. // Title in English: “Working nights to see your children, it’s not ideal!” Imposed atypical schedules complicate work-family balancing (WFB), particularly when they are associated with low-paid, low control work or involuntary part-time work. A growing number of workers are exposed to such exacting schedules, but few studies have examined the WFB strategies workers use to cope with them. For many, the only possible accommodation available is to make informal arrangements with managers or colleagues. Such agreements are fragile and individual and are characterized by relational dynamics, including power relations. They also put significant pressure on the work collective, which may limit operational leeway for conciliation. In other words, there is little or no room available for people to deploy strategies that will allow them to adapt their work according to the context and their capacities.Our interdisciplinary study combining communication and ergonomics examines WFB strategies in cleaning, a type of precarious employment associated with a low level of social prestige. More specifically, this article discusses the mechanisms influencing leeway available to reconciling atypical work schedules and family in the specific context of night work. Analysis of data from observations and interviews highlights the interactions among the choice of work schedule, the support of colleagues and relationships of gender and seniority. Situating WFB strategies at the heart of work activity, our results illustrate tensions that arise within the work group when individual needs for WFB are accommodated.Improving flexibility to reconcile family responsibilities with atypical work schedules requires simultaneous action on work organisation and on relational dynamics in order to promote collective support systems around the issue of work-life balance. These dynamics must be taken into account in the development of organizational policies and even legal measures in order to facilitate work-life balance.

Few Canadian data sources allow the examination of disparities by ethnicity, language, or immigrant status in occupational exposures or health outcomes. However, it is possible to document the mechanisms that can create disparities, such as the over-representation of population groups in high-risk jobs. We evaluated, in the Montréal context, the relationship between the social composition of jobs and their associated risk level. We used data from the 2001 Statistics Canada census and from Québec's workers' compensation board for 2000-2002 to characterize job categories defined as major industrial groups crossed with three professional categories (manual, mixed, non-manual). Immigrant, visible, and linguistic minority status variables were used to describe job composition. The frequency rate of compensated health problems and the average duration of compensation determined job risk level. The relationship between the social composition and risk level of jobs was evaluated with Kendall correlations. The proportion of immigrants and minorities was positively and significantly linked to the risk level across job categories. Many relationships were significant for women only. In analyses done within manual jobs, relationships with the frequency rate reversed and were significant, except for the relationship with the proportion of individuals with knowledge of French only, which remained positive. Immigrants, visible, and linguistic minorities in Montréal are more likely to work where there is an increased level of compensated risk. Reversed relationships within manual jobs may be explained by under-reporting and under-compensation in vulnerable populations compared to those with knowledge of the province's majority language.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) represent a complex and multi-faceted challenge, requiring multi-disciplinary, multi-perspective research approaches ranging from fundamental, basic science research to studies of applied workplace-based interventions. Members of the MSD Research Axis of the Quebec Occupational Health and Safety Research Network have been actively engaged in WMSD research across this full spectrum, contributing to significant knowledge advances on WMSD. Despite this, many facets of WMSDs remain insufficiently understood, and WMSDs remain a considerable problem for our society. Advances on interventions to decrease risk and improve workers' health are notable, although the level and quality of evidence about the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions must be improved. This paper highlights contributions of the group towards the advancement of understanding and prevention of WMSDs.

[This book] is a collection of original papers that presents a vision of an invigorated and vibrant labour movement, one that would actively seek the full participation of women and other traditionally excluded groups, and that would willingly incorporate a feminist agenda. This vision challenges union complicity in the gendered segmentation of the labour market; union support for traditionalist ideologies about women's work, breadwinners, and male-headed families; union resistance to broader-based bargaining; and the marginalization of women inside unions. All of the authors share a commitment to workplace militancy and a more democratic union movement, to women's resistance to the devaluation of their work, to their agency in the change-making process. The interconnected web of militancy, democracy, and feminism provides the grounds on which unions can address the challenges of equity and economic restructuring, and on which the re-visioning of the labour movement can take place. The first of the four sections includes case studies of union militancy that highlight the experiences of individual women in three areas of female-dominated work: nursing, banking, and retailing. The second and third sections focus on the two key arenas of struggle where unions and feminism meet: inside unions, where women activists and staff confront the sexism of unions, and in the labour market, where women challenge their employers and their own unions. The fourth section deconstructs the conceptual tools of the discipline of industrial relations and examines its contribution to the continued invisibility of gender. --Publisher's description. Contents: Foreword / Judy Darcy -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Feminist Challenge to the Unions / Linda Briskin and Patricia McDermott. Part 1. Women on Strike. The Eaton's Strike: We Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World! / Patricia McDermott -- Alberta Nurses and the 'Illegal' Strike of 1988 / Rebecca Coulter -- Reflections on Life Stories: Women's Bank Union Activism / Patricia Baker. Part 2. The Politics of Gender within the Union Movement. Union Women and Separate Organizing / Linda Briskin -- Trade Union Leadership: Sexism and Affirmative Action / Carl J. Cuneo -- Women Working for Unions: Female Staff and the Politics of Transformation / Jane Stinson and Penni Richmond -- Black Women Speak Out: Racism and Unions / Ronnie Leah -- Unionism and Feminism in the Canadian Auto Workers Union, 1961-1992 / Pamela Sugiman. Part 3. Unions and Women Workers. Patterns of Unionization / Julie White -- Collective Bargaining and Women's Workplace Concerns / Pradeep Kumar -- The Gendered Dimension of Labour Law: Why Women Need Inclusive Unionism and Broader-based Bargaining / Judy Fudge -- Can a Disappearing Pie be Shared Equally?: Unions, Women, and Wage 'Fairness' / Rosemary Warskett -- Unions and Women's Occupational Health in Québec / Karen Messing and Donna Mergler -- From the DEW Line: The Experience of Canadian Garment Workers / Armine Yalniziyan -- Professions, Unions, or What?: Learning from Nurses Pat Armstrong. Part 4. Studying Women and Unions. A View from Outside the Whale: The Treatment of Women and Unions in Industrial Relations / Anne Forrest.