Asunto(s)
Contaminantes Ocupacionales del Aire/historia , Fibra de Algodón , Polvo/prevención & control , Exposición Profesional/historia , Folletos/historia , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/historia , Historia del Siglo XX , Humanos , Exposición Profesional/prevención & control , Estados Unidos , United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration/organización & administraciónRESUMEN
The growth of the contingent workforce presents many challenges in the occupational safety and health arena. State and federal laws impose obligations and rights on employees and employers, but contingent work raises issues regarding responsibilities to maintain a safe workplace and difficulties in collecting and reporting data on injuries and illnesses. Contingent work may involve uncertainty about the length of employment, control over the labor process, degree of regulatory, or statutory protections, and access to benefits under workers' compensation. The paper highlights differences in regulatory protections and benefits among various types of contingent workers and how these different arrangements affect safety incentives. It discusses challenges caused by contingent work for accurate data reporting in existing injury and illness surveillance and benefit programs, differences between categories of contingent work in their coverage in various data sources, and opportunities for overcoming obstacles to effectively using workers' compensation data.
Asunto(s)
Servicios Contratados/organización & administración , Empleo/organización & administración , Salud Laboral , Vigilancia de la Población/métodos , Indemnización para Trabajadores , Interpretación Estadística de Datos , Encuestas Epidemiológicas , Humanos , Enfermedades Profesionales/epidemiología , Salud Laboral/legislación & jurisprudencia , Salud Laboral/normas , Salud Laboral/estadística & datos numéricos , Administración de Personal/legislación & jurisprudencia , Estados Unidos/epidemiología , Indemnización para Trabajadores/legislación & jurisprudencia , Indemnización para Trabajadores/estadística & datos numéricosRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: This article introduces some key labor, economic, and social policies that historically and currently impact occupational health disparities in the United States. METHODS: We conducted a broad review of the peer-reviewed and gray literature on the effects of social, economic, and labor policies on occupational health disparities. RESULTS: Many populations such as tipped workers, public employees, immigrant workers, and misclassified workers are not protected by current laws and policies, including worker's compensation or Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement of standards. Local and state initiatives, such as living wage laws and community benefit agreements, as well as multiagency law enforcement contribute to reducing occupational health disparities. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need to build coalitions and collaborations to command the resources necessary to identify, and then reduce and eliminate occupational disparities by establishing healthy, safe, and just work for all.
