One of the challenges facing the occupational safety and health community in California is a lack of comprehensive information on the conditions workers currently encounter on the job. Available data is largely limited to statistics on occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities collected by state and federal government agencies, items in the press on job site fatalities and anecdotal accounts of injuries or illnesses gathered in the context of a workshop, health and safety training or hearing. To supplement this information, a university-based occupational safety and health program conducted a series of one-on-one interviews and focus groups with a sample of workers from a variety of industries and occupations located through community groups, unions, day laborer centers and safety training classes. This presentation will describe the findings and methods of this study, titled "Workers' Voices from the Plant Floor." The interviews analyzed these workers' perceptions of current health and safety conditions at their workplaces. Topics to be discussed include workers' actual injury and illness experience, their perceived risk of fatality, injury or illness for themselves or their co-workers, their experience with safety training, their perceptions of worker rights under OSHA, and the presence and function of health and safety committees.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participant will be able to: identify three job hazards faced by California workers; describe how an ethnographic approach can be used to research occupational safety and health; and identify three areas of occupational health issues that warrant additional research
Keywords: Occupational Health, Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.