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Precarious employment is on the rise in Canada, increasing by nearly 50% in the last two decades. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which it can impact upon geographical mobility. Employment-related geographical mobility refers to mobility to, from and between workplaces, as well as mobility as part of work. We report on a qualitative study conducted among 27 immigrant men and women in Toronto that investigates the relationship between precarious employment and daily commutes while exploring the ways in which gender, class and migration structure this relationship.Interview data reveal that participants were largely unable to work where they lived or live where they worked. Their precarious jobs were characterized by conditions that resulted in long, complex, unfamiliar, unsafe and expensive commutes. These commuting difficulties, in turn, resulted in participants having to refuse or quit jobs, including desirable jobs, or being unable to engage in labour market strategies that could improve their employment conditions (e.g. taking courses, volunteering, etc.). Participants’ commuting difficulties were amplified by the delays, infrequency, unavailability and high cost of public transportation. These dynamics disproportionately and/or differentially impacted certain groups of workers. Precarious work has led to workers having to absorb an ever-growing share of the costs associated with their employment, underscored in our study as time, effort and money spent travelling to and from work. We discuss the forces that underlie the spatial patterning of work and workers in Toronto, namely the growing income gap and the increased polarization among neighbourhoods that has resulted in low-income immigrants increasingly moving from the centre to the edges of the city. We propose policy recommendations for public transportation, employment, housing and child care that can help alleviate some of the difficulties described. // L’emploi précaire poursuit sa croissance au Canada, augmentant de près de 50% au cours des deux dernières décennies. Toutefois, nous connaissons mal les mécanismes par lesquels cette forme d’organisation du travail peut influer sur la mobilité géographique des travailleurs. La mobilité géographique liée à l’emploi renvoie ici aux divers déplacements que doivent effectuer les travailleurs depuis et entre les lieux de travail, ainsi que les déplacements intrinsèques à l’exercice de l’emploi lui-même. Les résultats qui suivent proviennent d’une étude qualitative effectuée auprès de 27 hommes et femmes immigrants vivant à Toronto, étude qui s’est attardée à la relation entre l’emploi précaire et les déplacements quotidiens qui y sont rattachés, tout en explorant les façons par lesquelles le genre, la classe sociale et la migration structurent cette relation.Les données en provenance des entrevues indiquent que les participants étaient généralement incapables de travailler près de leur lieu de résidence, ou encore d’habiter près de leur lieu de travail. Leurs emplois précaires se caractérisaient par des conditions qui donnaient lieu à des déplacements quotidiens longs, complexes, peu familiers, dangereux et coûteux. En retour, les difficultés liées aux déplacements quotidiens faisaient en sorte que les participants devaient souvent refuser ou quitter des emplois, parfois intéressants, ou s’avéraient incapables de s’investir dans des stratégies qui auraient pu leur permettre d’améliorer leurs conditions de travail (par exemple, suivre des cours, faire du bénévolat, etc.). De plus, les difficultés vécues par les participants se trouvaient amplifiées par les délais, la rareté, l’indisponibilité et les coûts élevés des transports en commun. Ces dynamiques à l’oeuvre affectaient de manières différentes et/ou disproportionnées certains groupes de travailleurs.L’emploi précaire pousse les travailleurs à absorber une part toujours plus importante des coûts associés à leur emploi. L’étude met clairement en relief ces coûts tels le temps, l’effort et l’argent dépensés à voyager vers et depuis le lieu travail. Nous traitons ensuite des facteurs qui sous-tendent la répartition spatiale des emplois des travailleurs à Toronto, notamment l’écart grandissant des inégalités de revenus et l’accroissement de la polarisation des quartiers, phénomènes qui ont entraîné le déplacement des immigrants à faible revenu du centre vers les limites de la ville. Nous proposons des recommandations concernant le transport en commun, l’emploi, le logement et les services de garde à l’enfance susceptibles de contribuer à atténuer certaines des difficultés décrites.

Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of experts from the fields of labour studies, public health, ergonomics, epidemiology, sociology and law, Sick and Tired examines the inequalities in workplace health and safety. Using an anti-oppressive framework, chapters interrogate a wide range of issues, including links between precarious employment and mental health, the inverse relationship between power and occupational health through the experiences of women, immigrants and older workers, and the need for creative strategies that promote health and safety in ways that support empowerment and equity. --Publisher's description. Contents: Introduction: Causes and expressions of inequalities / Stephanie Premji --The changing nature of work in Canada: Impact on the health of workers / Peter Smith -- Are millennials being stiffed? Work and mental health in a neoliberal world / Wayne Lewchuk & Jeffrey Martin -- The aging population and workforce: Implications for occupational health and safety / Harry Shannon, Lauren Griffith & Parminder Raina -- Workers’ compensation in Ontario: Legislative and policy changes / Andrew King -- Occupational disease recognition: The science and politics in workers’ compensation / Katherine Lippel -- The dominant breast cancer causation paradigm: Challenging it through the lens of media discourses / Jane McArthur -- Between a rock and a hard place: Making occupational health compatible with gender equality / Karen Messing -- Immigrant men and women’s occupational health: Questioning the myths / Stephanie Premji -- Hotel and hospital cleaning: Occupational health and safety risks in the neoliberal era / Dan Zuberi & Melita Ptashnick -- Compounded vulnerabilities and creative strategies: Occupational health of temporary foreign agricultural workers / Janet McLaughlin, Michelle Tew & Eduardo Huesca -- Science, politics and advocacy: The fight to ban asbestos / Kathleen Ruff.

Objective. We sought to document pathways between under/unemployment and health among racialized immigrant women in Toronto while exploring the ways in which gender, class, migration and racialization, as interlocking systems of social relations, structure these relationships. Design. We conducted 30 interviews with racialized immigrant women who were struggling to get stable employment that matched their education and/or experience. Participants were recruited through flyers, partner agencies and peer researcher networks. Most interviews (21) were conducted in a language other than English. Interviews were transcribed, translated as appropriate and analyzed using NVivo software. The project followed a community-based participatory action research model. Results. Under/unemployment negatively impacted the physical and mental health of participants and their families. It did so directly, for example through social isolation, as well as indirectly through representation in poor quality jobs. Under/unemployment additionally led to the intensification of job search strategies and of the household/caregiving workload which also negatively impacted health. Health problems, in turn, contributed to pushing participants into long-term substandard employment trajectories. Participants’ experiences were heavily structured by their social location as low income racialized immigrant women. Conclusions. Our study provides needed qualitative evidence on the gendered and racialized dimensions of under/unemployment, and adverse health impacts resulting from this. Drawing on intersectional analysis, we unpack the role that social location plays in creating highly uneven patterns of under/unemployment and negative health pathways for racialized immigrant women. We discuss equity informed strategies to help racialized immigrant women overcome barriers to stable work that match their education and/or experience.

Objective: We examined disparities in hazardous employment characteristics and working conditions among Chinese and white workers in Toronto, Canada.Design. We used self-administered questionnaire data from a 2005–2006 population-based survey (n = 1611). Using modified Poisson regression, we examined the likelihood for Chinese workers of experiencing adverse exposures compared to whites. Models were stratified by sex and adjusted for differences in human capital. Work sector was conceptualized as a mediating variable.Results. Chinese workers were generally more likely to report adverse exposures. In many cases, disparities were only evident or more pronounced among women. The shorter length of time in Canada of Chinese relative to whites accounted for some of the observed disparities. Meanwhile, the higher educational level of Chinese compared to whites provided them with no protection from adverse exposures. The risk of experiencing discrimination on the labor market and at work was more than 50% higher among Chinese men and women as compared to whites, and those disparities, though reduced, persisted after adjustment for confounders.Conclusions. Discrimination is far more prevalent among Chinese than among whites and may explain their disproportionate exposure to other hazards.

This study seeks to develop a diversity profile of the nursing workforce in Canada and its major cities. Background There is ample evidence of ethnic and linguistic segregation in the Canadian labour market. However, it is unknown if there is equitable representation of visible and linguistic minorities in nursing professions. We cross-tabulated aggregate data from Statistics Canada’s 2006 Census. Analyses examined the distribution of visible and linguistic minorities, including visible minority sub-groups, among health managers, head nurses, registered nurses, licensed nurses and nurse aides for Canada and major cities as well as by gender. In Canada and its major cities, a pyramidal structure was found whereby visible and linguistic minorities, women in particular, were under-represented in managerial positions and over-represented in lower ranking positions. Blacks and Filipinos were generally well represented across nursing professions; however, other visible minority sub-groups lacked representation. Conclusions Diversity initiatives at all levels can play a role in promoting better access to and quality of care for minority populations through the increased cultural and linguistic competence of care providers and organizations. Implications for Nursing Management Efforts to increase diversity in nursing need to be accompanied by commitment and resources to effectively manage diversity within organizations.

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.

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.

Despite their high levels of education, racialized immigrant women in Canada are over-represented in low-paid, low-skill jobs characterized by high risk and precarity. Our project documents the experiences with precarious employment of racialized immigrant women in Toronto. We conducted 30 semi-structured interviews with racialized immigrant women. Participants were recruited through posted flyers, partner agencies, peer researcher networks and snowball sampling. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using NVivo software. The project followed a community-based participatory action research model. Participants faced powerful structural barriers to decent employment and additionally faced barriers associated with household gender relations. Their labour market experiences negatively impacted their physical and mental health as well as that of their families. These problems further constrained women's ability to secure decent employment. Our study makes important contributions in filling the gap on the gendered barriers racialized immigrant women face in the labour market and the gendered impacts of deskilling and precarity on women and their families. We propose labour market reforms and changes in immigration and social policies to enable racialized immigrant women to overcome barriers to decent work.

This report describes experiences of extreme employment precarity and impacts on health and well-being among South Asians in Toronto. In 2018, community advocates from the South Asian Women’s Rights Organizations (SAWRO), Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic (IWC), and researchers from McMaster University came together to develop a health and safety workshop for South Asian workers. The initiative grew from a need identified at the community level for more information and advocacy around health and safety in the South Asian community, and among South Asian women in particular. It was funded by a Multicultural Community Capacity Grant from the Government of Ontario. Advocates and researchers developed a 2-hour training workshop on precarious employment, employment rights and workers’ compensation. They trained 10 outreach workers from SAWRO on these topics, and the outreach workers went into their community to share the knowledge they gained and advertise the workshop. The workshop, held in February 2019, was attended by 53 men and women. In March 2019, researchers held two focus groups with a total of 20 South Asian men and women to discuss and document experiences of work and health. This report is ased on the stories shared with us during the training session for outreach workers, the workshop, and the focus groups. --From Introduction

In this edited collection, Leslie Nichols weaves together the contributions of accomplished and diverse scholars to offer an expansive and critical analysis of women’s work in Canada. Students will use an intersectional approach to explore issues of gender, class, race, immigrant status, disability, sexual orientation, Indigeneity, age, and ethnicity in relation to employment. Drawing from case studies and extensive research, the text’s eighteen chapters consider Canadian industries across a broad spectrum, including political, academic, sport, sex trade, retail, and entrepreneurial work. Working Women in Canada is a relevant and in-depth look into the past, present, and future of women’s responsibilities and professions in Canada. Undergraduate and graduate students in gender studies, labour studies, and sociology courses will benefit from this thorough and intersectional approach to the study of women’s labour. Features include tables, case studies, a glossary of key terms, and chapter introductions and conclusions to assist with student comprehension encourages further learning by concluding each chapter with discussion questions, a list of additional key readings, and an extensive reference list provides a broad portrait of women’s work in Canada with contributions from over 20 scholars. --Publisher's description. Contents: Women, work, and intersectionality: An introduction */* Leslie Nichols -- Unions are definitely good for women—but that’s not the whole story / Anne Forrest -- Women’s occupational health and safety / Katherine Lippel and Stephanie Premji -- Unemployed and underemployed women in Canada / Leslie Nichols -- Immigrant women’s work: Paid and unpaid labour in the neoliberal economy / Leslie Nichols, Vappu Tyyskä, and Pramila Aggarwal -- “Not just a job”: Disability, work, and gender / Esther Ignagni -- Young women: Navigating the education-employment divide / Leslie Nichols -- Childcare: Working in early childhood education and care in Canada / Susan Prentice -- Minoritized faculty in Canada’s universities and colleges: Gender, power, and academic work / Sandra Acker and Linda Muzzin -- Black women’s small businesses as historical spaces of resistance / Melanie Knight -- Black women in Canadian university sports / Danielle Gabay -- The public women of Canada: Women in elected office / Jocelyne Praud, Alexa Lewis, and Jarod Sicotte -- Women, aesthetic labour, and retail work: A case study of independent fashion retailers in Toronto / Deborah Leslie and Taylor Brydges -- From the woman’s page to the digital age: Women in journalism / Andrea Hunter -- Equity shifts in firefighting: Challenging gendered and racialized work / Susan Braedley -- Women in manufacturing: Challenges in a neoliberal context / June Corman -- The nonprofit sector: Women’s path to leadership / Agnes Meinhard and Mary Foster -- Understanding the work in sex work: Canadian contexts / Kara Gillies, Elene Lam, Tuulia Law, Rai Reece, Andrea Sterling, and Emily van der Meulen.