State mediation of conflicts over work refusals: the role of the Ontario Labour Relations Board

Remapping worker citizenship in contemporary occupational health and safety regimes

The article draws on the rapidly growing field of citizenship studies to map and explore the dynamics of contemporary occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation. Using two key dimensions of OHS regulation (protection and participation), the author constructs four ideal types of worker citizenship (market, public, private industrial, and public industrial citizens). Historically, workers have been written into OHS regulatory regimes in each of these ways. Most recently lawmakers have created a new species of OHS regimes, best described as mandated partial self-regulation. Its distinguishing characteristic is its flexibility, such that worker citizenship can take on any of the forms previously described, often without changing the statutory framework. Using Ontario as an example, the study finds that in the late 20th century, workers made significant strides toward public industrial citizenship and, surprisingly, even under a neoconservative government, workers successfully defended their participatory rights and saw their right to protection modestly strengthened through increased enforcement. The conditions under which this regime operates, however, constantly threaten to undermine the efficacy of worker participation rights and to weaken the enforcement effort. Some suggestions are made about using a citizenship discourse to revitalize the worker OHS movement and strengthen OHS rights.

Diverging Trends in Worker Health and Safety Protection and Participation in Canada, 1985-2000

Despite the comprehensiveness of neo-liberal restructuring in Canada, it has not proceeded uniformly in its timing or outcomes across regulatory fields and political jurisdictions. The example of occupational health and safety (OHS) regulation is instructive. This article compares recent OHS developments in five Canadian jurisdictions, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and the Federal jurisdiction. It finds that despite the adoption of a common model by all jurisdictions, there has recently been considerable divergence in the way that the elements of worker participation and protection have been combined. Modified power resource theory is used to explain a portion of this divergence.

Different wor(l)ds: three approaches to health research

This article describes three approaches to research in the social sciences: positivist, interpretivist and critical social science. It uncovers some of the philosophical assumptions these approaches adhere to and situates the discussion in the population health arena with respect to these assumptions. The issues under debate are as yet unsolved (and perhaps unsolvable), with long histories in philosophy and sophisticated rationales on all sides. The article advocates defining the underlying terms of discussion and making assumptions explicit to facilitate dialogue, and also encourages exploration of and tolerance for other approaches.