Working Conditions as a Determinant of Health
This summary is primarily based on papers and presentations by Andrew Jackson, Senior Economist, Canadian Labour Congress, and Michael Polanyi Assistant Professor, Saskatchewan Population Health Research and Evaluation Unit, and Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies, University of Regina. The presentations were prepared for The Social Determinants of Health Across the Life-Span Conference, held in Toronto in November 2002.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Health Canada.

Current Situation
Over the 1980s and 1990s, there has been an ongoing restructuring of the labour market and of employment relationships. The intent of these changes has been to promote productivity and competitiveness, as opposed to promoting a worker-centred agenda of “good jobs” (Lowe, 2000). In Canada, only two-thirds of the employed workforce are in “standard” salaried jobs with no defined end date (mostly provided by large firms and the public sector). In this shrinking core job market, workers who have survived layoffs, privatization and contracting-out are generally working longer and harder. Employers have tried to increase profitability and competitiveness and to contain budgets by boosting productivity. This has been accomplished largely by increasing workloads. For example, in the health sector, fewer nurses, social workers and other health professionals must now deal with more clients and perform more duties. Investments in new labour-saving equipment, new information-based technologies, and experimentation with new forms of work organization have also boosted productivity. Some workplaces have become less hierarchical and alienating with the elimination of lower level supervisors and expanded job content. However, the overall incidence of innovative new