Organization of work in the agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector in the US southeast: Implications for immigrant workers' occupational safety and health
Abstract:In contrast to the broader literature, research linking occupational health outcomes to work organization in the AgFF Sector is limited and weak. A systematic program of research and intervention is needed to develop strategies that eliminate or substantially mitigate the deleterious health effects of occupational exposures whose origins likely lie in the organization of AgFF work.
“…1-2 These implications are especially important for immigrant and minority workers, who have few work options, 3-4 and who are over-represented in hazardous manual labor jobs. 5-7 Farmworkers are a particularly vulnerable immigrant and minority population who may be affected by work organization.…”
Background
Work organization is important for the health of vulnerable workers, particularly women. This analysis describes work organization for Latinas in farmworker families and delineates the associations of work organization with health indicators.
Methods
220 Latino women in farmworker families completed interviews from October 2012 - July 2013. Interviews addressed job structure, job demand, job control, and job support. Health measures included stress, depressive symptoms, physical activity, family conflict, and family economic security.
Results
Three-fifths of the women were employed. Several work organization dimensions, including shift, psychological demand, work safety climate, and benefits, were associated with participant health as expected, based on the work organization and job demands-control-support models.
Conclusions
Research should address women's health and specific work responsibilities. Occupational safety policy must consider the importance of work organization in the health of vulnerable workers.
“…1-2 These implications are especially important for immigrant and minority workers, who have few work options, 3-4 and who are over-represented in hazardous manual labor jobs. 5-7 Farmworkers are a particularly vulnerable immigrant and minority population who may be affected by work organization.…”
Background
Work organization is important for the health of vulnerable workers, particularly women. This analysis describes work organization for Latinas in farmworker families and delineates the associations of work organization with health indicators.
Methods
220 Latino women in farmworker families completed interviews from October 2012 - July 2013. Interviews addressed job structure, job demand, job control, and job support. Health measures included stress, depressive symptoms, physical activity, family conflict, and family economic security.
Results
Three-fifths of the women were employed. Several work organization dimensions, including shift, psychological demand, work safety climate, and benefits, were associated with participant health as expected, based on the work organization and job demands-control-support models.
Conclusions
Research should address women's health and specific work responsibilities. Occupational safety policy must consider the importance of work organization in the health of vulnerable workers.
“…Forty‐six articles (43%) discussed health and safety risks and responses in cultural terms, with cultural factors commonly hypothesized to shape the risk of injury or illness . For example, Rosenbaum et al write, in the context of their study showing that upper musculoskeletal injuries are common among immigrant Latino workers, that “Activities outside of the workplace in this culturally and socioeconomically uniform group could be similar and possibly account for the lack of differences in injury rates.” (p232) At other times, culture was said or theorized to influence perceptions or experiences of working conditions and physical and psychosocial hazards:“Among the Chinese workers, many associated this lack of control with showing respect for their clients … Obeying the client's instructions was, therefore, not considered as a lack of control but as part of their cultural norms.” (p479) …”
Background
Health and safety researchers and practitioners have proposed that cultural differences help explain inequalities between foreign and native‐born workers. While cultural explanations for inequalities have long been debated in other fields, there exists little critique of cultural discourses in occupational health.
Methods
This article examines and discusses the discourse on culture in 107 articles on immigrant or migrant workers’ health published between 2011 and 2015. For each article, passages on culture were identified and analysed for both the context and the manner in which culture was discussed.
Results
The discourse on culture was found to be generally simplistic, individualistic, and uncritical, intentionally or unintentionally supporting the worldview that workers’ “otherness” is both cause of inequalities and target for interventions.
Conclusion
The article argues that empirical, theoretical and interdisciplinary work is needed to document the mechanisms and pathways that underlie health and safety inequalities by foreign‐born status.
“…Many of these exposures are similar across the industries within the Sector. The organization of work within the AgFF Sector underlies many of these occupational exposures [Grzywacz et al, ]. For example, exceptions for agriculture and some forestry and fishing activities to the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act create systematic opportunities for worker exploitation and undermine the provision of safe working conditions [Wiggins, ].…”
Section: Definitionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Finally, the organization of work [Grzywacz et al, ] for immigrant workers often increases their risks for occupational injury and illness. For example, these workers frequently change employers and therefore may not receive the safety training they need [Quandt et al, ].…”
Section: Reasons For Concern About Immigrant Workers In the Agff Sectormentioning
This report addresses how best to define the population and the AgFF Sector, occupational exposures for the sector, data limitations, characteristics of immigrant workers, reasons for concern for immigrant workers in the AgFF Sector, regulations, a conceptual model for occupational health, and directions for research and intervention.
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