Assessing the impact of California's Worker Occupational Safety and Health Specialist program: Does worker leadership training have a positive effect?

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

3240.0: Monday, November 05, 2007 - 12:50 PM

Abstract #155519

Robin Dewey, MPH¹, Lyn Paleo, MPA, DrPH², Robin Baker, MPH¹, Linda Delp, PhD³, Laura Stock, MPH¹, Deogracia Cornelio, MA³, Christine Baker⁴, Irina Nemirovsky, MSc⁴, Nurgul Toktogonova⁴, and Selma Meyerowitz, PhD⁴. (1) Labor Occupational Health Program, UC Berkeley, 2223 Fulton St., Berkeley, CA 94720-5120, 510-642-2477, rdewey@berkeley.edu, (2) Evaluation Research and Training, PO Box 3400, Berkeley, CA 94703, (3) Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program/IIR, University of California Los Angeles, Box 951478, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478, (4) Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation, California Department of Industrial Relations, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 901, Oakland, CA 94612

Can employees from the “shop floor” become effective workplace health and safety leaders? This paper looks at the results of an evaluation of a “ Worker Occupational Safety and Health Specialist” course, part of a unique program administered by California's Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation and funded through an annual assessment on workers' compensation insurance carriers. The course consists of 24 hours of training coordinated by University-based labor education centers, using a standardized curriculum that is highly participatory and action-oriented. To date, more than 750 Specialists have been trained throughout the state. This presentation will describe the program's effectiveness in achieving positive health and safety changes in the workplace and factors that contribute to, or interfere with, the impact Worker Occupational Safety and Health Specialists have on the job. Data were collected through interviews with randomly selected participants 3-6 months following completion of the course. They were asked about efforts to identify workplace health and safety problems, to make improvements in health and safety conditions at work, and to communicate health and safety issues to other workers. Analysis of activities these worker leaders have been able to initiate will be featured, as well as a discussion of the critical components that seem to make a difference in effectiveness.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the goals, learning objectives and teaching methodology of California's Worker Occupational Safety and Health (WOSH) Specialist training program.
Describe the methods used to evaluate the impact of the WOSH Specialist course in promoting workplace health and safety.
Analyze examples of WOSH Specialists' efforts to promote workplace health and safety in their workplaces as well as the challenges of effecting change, as identified through follow-up interviews with worker leaders after attending the course.
List at least three factors that make a difference in the ability of worker specialists to promote health and safety in their workplaces.

Keywords: Occupational Health Programs, Training

Related Web page: www.dir.ca.gov/CHSWC/WOSHTEP.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Evaluating Occupational Safety Regulations - What works?

The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA