Injuries at work have a substantial economic and societal burden. Often groups of labour market participants, such as young workers, recent immigrants or temporary workers are labelled as being "vulnerable" to work injury. However, defining groups in this way does little to enable a better understanding of the broader factors that place workers at increased risk of injury. In this paper we describe the development of a new measure of occupational health and safety (OH&S) vulnerability. The purpose of this measure was to allow the identification of workers at increased risk of injury, and to enable the monitoring and surveillance of OH&S vulnerability in the labour market. The development included a systematic literature search, and conducting focus groups with a variety of stakeholder groups, to generate a pool of potential items, followed by a series of steps to reduce these items to a more manageable pool. The final measure is 29-item instrument that captures information on four related, but distinct dimensions, thought to be associated with increased risk of injury. These dimensions are: hazard exposure; occupational health and safety policies and procedures; OH&S awareness; and empowerment to participate in injury prevention. In a large sample of employees in Ontario and British Columbia the final measure displayed minimal missing responses, reasonably good distributions across response categories, and strong factorial validity. This new measure of OH&S vulnerability can identify workers who are at risk of injury and provide information on the dimensions of work that may increase this risk. This measurement could be undertaken at one point in time to compare vulnerability across groups, or be undertaken at multiple time points to examine changes in dimensions of OH&S vulnerability, for example, in response to a primary prevention intervention.

Efforts must be made to systematically inform new immigrants of their health and safety rights, responsibilities and entitlements as they are entering the labour market. Systems must be put in place to ensure that immigrants can access the compensation system in the event of a work-related injury and that employers and healthcare providers fulfil their reporting responsibilities.

Future research should explore how workers can better be supported after a work-related injury and during the RTW process.

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ObjectiveTo describe OH&S vulnerability across a diverse sample of Canadian workers.MethodsA survey was administered to 1,835 workers employed more than 15 hrs/week in workplaces with at least five employees. Adjusted logistic models were fitted for three specific and one overall measure of workplace vulnerability developed based on hazard exposure and access to protective OH&S policies and procedures, awareness of employment rights and responsibilities, and workplace empowerment.ResultsMore than one third of the sample experienced some OH&S vulnerability. The type and magnitude of vulnerability varied by labor market sub‐group. Younger workers and those in smaller workplaces experienced significantly higher odds of multiple types of vulnerability. Temporary workers reported elevated odds of overall, awareness‐ and empowerment‐related vulnerability, while respondents born outside of Canada had significantly higher odds of awareness vulnerability.ConclusionKnowing how labor market sub‐groups experience different types of vulnerability can inform better‐tailored primary prevention interventions. Am. J. Ind. Med. 59:119–128, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. American Journal of Industrial Medicine Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.