Highly educated newcomers, not used to manual labour, often work high-risk jobs with little training
When Agnieszka Kosny, a scientist at the Institute for Work and Health, interviewed immigrant workers about their experiences after getting hurt on the job, she found keeping newcomers to Canada safe in the workplace does not always seem to be a priority.
“Few people had any occupational health and safety training in their job,” she said.
Many of the immigrants Kosny interviewed felt part of the reason for the lack of training was because they were viewed as disposable labour, working jobs that didn’t require a high education levels, she said.
Kosny’s study is particularly striking considering the level of workplace injuries among immigrants is much higher than the Canadian-born population. The Manitoba Immigrants Safety Initiative (MISI) reports newcomers to Canada are five to seven times more likely to be injured on the job.
With immigrants expected to count for all labour growth in Canada over the next five to six years, according to the MISI, the issue could become more prevalent.
Peter Smith, a colleague of Kosny’s at the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), recently completed research that found immigrant men were twice as likely to be injured at work than Canadian born workers in their first five years in Canada.
Canada tends to recruit people with high education levels. So before many immigrants arrive they are working white collar, non-manual jobs, he said.
“But what happens is after they arrive in Canada…they end up in jobs that have much higher physical demands than they previously worked in,” he said.
They aren’t used to working such physically strenuous work, which could be part of the reason for higher injury rates, said Smith.
The research found almost 40 per cent of the immigrants in the study were working more physically demanding jobs than they did in their home countries.
Despite working such high-risk jobs with little training, another IWH study shows there are not always resources readily available for immigrants if they are looking for OHS or workers’ compensation information, said Kosny.
Kosny performed a scan of resources available to immigrants at the beginning of 2011. She found that between provinces there was a high variation in what was available, the depth of materials, where the materials were located and how easy they were to find.
“We were actually surprised that a lot of the materials that were aimed at newcomers were actually only available in French and English,” she said.
There is some expectation immigrants coming in through the point system have a high level of English knowledge but there are a number of immigrants who report not speaking any English or French, she said.
Many come to Canada with family members who speak English or French, but they may have limited skills in either of the two official languages, she said.
Recent programs are trying to change the lack of availability of resources for immigrants. Two years ago Safety Services Manitoba, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide a safe and healthy Manitoba, tried to make more resources available through the MISI.
“There are so many immigrants in the province of Manitoba, the accident rate is high within immigrants and mainly due to lack of training and understanding of legislation,” said David Erl, director of occupational health and safety with Safety Services Manitoba.
Many employers have commented on the organization’s website since they debuted the program. Safety Services Manitoba has given out hundreds of packages containing a guide to OHS laws for employers and a guide for employees, translated into different languages, to help employers educate their workforce, said Erl.
The fact sheet for employees is translated into a variety of languages including Tagalog, German, Spanish and Russian.
“Employers will find it difficult to translate (OHS information) to the workforce and if they can give a one or two page document to their workers to read, they will read it and they’ll understand it and it passes on that information, that vital information they need to follow while they work in Canada,” he said.
The organization recently did an interview blitz on the outcome of the initiative of about 80 people. Through those interviews they found a number of people who had reviewed the information in their mother tongue and knew about the availability of the information before even visiting the organization, said Erl.
“It really gives Manitoba employers an opportunity to educate immigrant workers on the core elements of workplace safety and health,” he said.
Kosny also worked recently to develop vital workplace safety information for immigrants with a skills development agency in Toronto.
The group created modules focused on workplace safety and one on workers’ compensation. They are currently running the information through focus groups of immigrant clients and the people who deliver services to them, she said.
Both Smith and Kosny said they think information about workers’ compensation and workplace safety should be included in packages newcomers get when they arrive in Canada.
“I feel like immigrants get a lot of labour market information, so they get information about finding work in Canada and to me it just seems like such a natural place to put some information about workplace safety and workers’ comp,” said Kosny.
Even though workers’ compensation and workplace safety are provincially regulated, Smith said it would be best if the information was distributed to newcomers on a federal level, to make sure everyone is getting it.
“Ideally what we’d like to see is this done at a federal level so that part of your welcome to Canada pack is information on occupational health and safety risks, is information on workers’ compensation, is information on some of your rights,” said Smith.
“Because at the moment you are told how to do up your CV, you’re told how to get a health card, but you’re not told about occupational health and safety when you arrive in Canada.”
“Few people had any occupational health and safety training in their job,” she said.
Many of the immigrants Kosny interviewed felt part of the reason for the lack of training was because they were viewed as disposable labour, working jobs that didn’t require a high education levels, she said.
Kosny’s study is particularly striking considering the level of workplace injuries among immigrants is much higher than the Canadian-born population. The Manitoba Immigrants Safety Initiative (MISI) reports newcomers to Canada are five to seven times more likely to be injured on the job.
With immigrants expected to count for all labour growth in Canada over the next five to six years, according to the MISI, the issue could become more prevalent.
Peter Smith, a colleague of Kosny’s at the Institute for Work and Health (IWH), recently completed research that found immigrant men were twice as likely to be injured at work than Canadian born workers in their first five years in Canada.
Canada tends to recruit people with high education levels. So before many immigrants arrive they are working white collar, non-manual jobs, he said.
“But what happens is after they arrive in Canada…they end up in jobs that have much higher physical demands than they previously worked in,” he said.
They aren’t used to working such physically strenuous work, which could be part of the reason for higher injury rates, said Smith.
The research found almost 40 per cent of the immigrants in the study were working more physically demanding jobs than they did in their home countries.
Despite working such high-risk jobs with little training, another IWH study shows there are not always resources readily available for immigrants if they are looking for OHS or workers’ compensation information, said Kosny.
Kosny performed a scan of resources available to immigrants at the beginning of 2011. She found that between provinces there was a high variation in what was available, the depth of materials, where the materials were located and how easy they were to find.
“We were actually surprised that a lot of the materials that were aimed at newcomers were actually only available in French and English,” she said.
There is some expectation immigrants coming in through the point system have a high level of English knowledge but there are a number of immigrants who report not speaking any English or French, she said.
Many come to Canada with family members who speak English or French, but they may have limited skills in either of the two official languages, she said.
Recent programs are trying to change the lack of availability of resources for immigrants. Two years ago Safety Services Manitoba, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide a safe and healthy Manitoba, tried to make more resources available through the MISI.
“There are so many immigrants in the province of Manitoba, the accident rate is high within immigrants and mainly due to lack of training and understanding of legislation,” said David Erl, director of occupational health and safety with Safety Services Manitoba.
Many employers have commented on the organization’s website since they debuted the program. Safety Services Manitoba has given out hundreds of packages containing a guide to OHS laws for employers and a guide for employees, translated into different languages, to help employers educate their workforce, said Erl.
The fact sheet for employees is translated into a variety of languages including Tagalog, German, Spanish and Russian.
“Employers will find it difficult to translate (OHS information) to the workforce and if they can give a one or two page document to their workers to read, they will read it and they’ll understand it and it passes on that information, that vital information they need to follow while they work in Canada,” he said.
The organization recently did an interview blitz on the outcome of the initiative of about 80 people. Through those interviews they found a number of people who had reviewed the information in their mother tongue and knew about the availability of the information before even visiting the organization, said Erl.
“It really gives Manitoba employers an opportunity to educate immigrant workers on the core elements of workplace safety and health,” he said.
Kosny also worked recently to develop vital workplace safety information for immigrants with a skills development agency in Toronto.
The group created modules focused on workplace safety and one on workers’ compensation. They are currently running the information through focus groups of immigrant clients and the people who deliver services to them, she said.
Both Smith and Kosny said they think information about workers’ compensation and workplace safety should be included in packages newcomers get when they arrive in Canada.
“I feel like immigrants get a lot of labour market information, so they get information about finding work in Canada and to me it just seems like such a natural place to put some information about workplace safety and workers’ comp,” said Kosny.
Even though workers’ compensation and workplace safety are provincially regulated, Smith said it would be best if the information was distributed to newcomers on a federal level, to make sure everyone is getting it.
“Ideally what we’d like to see is this done at a federal level so that part of your welcome to Canada pack is information on occupational health and safety risks, is information on workers’ compensation, is information on some of your rights,” said Smith.
“Because at the moment you are told how to do up your CV, you’re told how to get a health card, but you’re not told about occupational health and safety when you arrive in Canada.”
