Documents Rosskam, Ellen 10 results

"More knowledgeable and trained people are needed in the area of occupational health, safety, and environment (OSHE) if work-related fatalities, accidents, and diseases are to be reduced. Established systems have been largely ineffective, with few employers taking voluntary measures to protect workers and the environment and too few labor inspectors available. Training techniques using participatory methods and a worker empowerment philosophy have proven value. There is demonstrated need for the use of education for action, promoting the involvement of workers in all levels of decision-making and problem-solving in the workplace. OSH risks particular to women's jobs are virtually unstudied and not addressed at policy levels in most countries. Trade unions and health and safety professionals need to demystify technical areas, empower workers, and encourage unions to dedicate special activities around women's jobs. Trained women are excellent motivators and transmitters of safety culture. Particular emphasis is given to train-the-trainer approaches."

"No body of literature exists related specifically to the occupational health of airport check-in workers. The problems encountered by airport check-in workers are typical of other service-sector occupations with similar work-related health hazards, particularly those characterized by a high level of demand with low worker control, performed predominantly by women. The knowledge gap could be narrowed by broadening the scope in both traditional occupational health and ergonomics studies to take into equal consideration jobs performed by women. In an attempt to reduce the knowledge gap specific to airport check-in workers, literature was reviewed on several other worker populations whose job characteristics include elements similar to airport check-in work: computer clerical workers, supermarket check-in workers, and airport baggage handlers. This cross-population review identified the major elements that have been studied in the comparison groups, compared with the factors examined in a study of check-in workers. The review demonstrates that jobs that may appear completely different from the outside, might, upon closer examination, have numerous common exposures from a variety of sources. Thus, knowledge about one job may be useful for another that has not been investigated. The literature review reveals that it would be useful to extend to airport check-in workers recommendations from studies of the three comparison populations."

"Reading "Technical assistance: Providing grassroots groups access to scientific and technical information" by Barbara Berney (New Solutions, Vol. 15, No. 1), I was overtaken by a subliminal image of Erin Brockovich (looking like Julia Roberts), who was a self-taught technical assistance provider (TA). For progressives, radicals, for those who apply participatory methods in research, for those familiar with the work of Paolo Freire and the benefits of building critical consciousness, there are some interesting extensions that can be drawn from the success stories of TAs working with grassroots groups. "

"Work, so fundamental to well-being, has its darker and more costly side. Work can adversely affect our health, well beyond the usual counts of injuries that we think of as "occupational health." The ways in which work is organized—its pace and intensity, degree of control over the work process, sense of justice, and employment security, among other things—can be as toxic to the health of workers as the chemicals in the air. These work characteristics can be detrimental not only to mental well-being but to physical health. Scientists refer to these features of work as "hazards" of the "psychosocial" work environment. One key pathway from the work environment to illness is through the mechanism of stress; thus we speak of "stressors" in the work environment, or "work stress." This is in contrast to the popular psychological understandings of "stress," which locate many of the problems with the individual rather than the environment. In this book we advance a social environmental understanding of the workplace and health. The book addresses this topic in three parts: the important changes taking place in the world of work in the context of the global economy (Part I); scientific findings on the effects of particular forms of work organization and work stressors on employees' health, "unhealthy work" as a major public health problem, and estimates of costs to employers and society (Part II); and case studies and various approaches to improve working conditions, prevent disease, and improve health (Part III)."

"Based on groundbreaking research on the working conditions of airport check-in workers in two countries, a previously unstudied category of predominantly women workers, Ellen Rosskam describes a form of work characterized as modern-day Taylorism. An occupation greatly affected by new forms of work organization and management practices — caught in the throes of rapid change due to international competition, alliances, mergers, and the application of cost-efficiency strategies — check-in work has been undermined in recent years by the adverse effects of liberalization and technological change. Excess Baggage makes a convincing case for taking a holistic approach to viewing jobs, considering them as “entire work systems” and not merely as a series of individual factors. Rosskam makes an eloquent plea for involving workers in organizational decision-making and a convincing case for using the collective voice as a critical key for improving working conditions. "

Public services are being liberalized world wide, opened to foreign service providers, often turned into private services through privatization, commercialization, marketization, and deregulation. Yet the privatization of public services means that many, many people can no longer benefit from such services because they cannot pay, or because they do not belong to the social class for whom the private services are intended. Little is known about the changes taking place in services long-considered to be a public “right”, or about the widening social disparities that result from liberalization. What are the impacts on the social and economic security of employees in public services turned private? What happens to employees and “clients” when part of a public service turns private, effectively turning into “competition” for the public service? How rapidly is the liberalization of public services taking place, in which countries, and by what means? These are some of the questions this book attempts to answer through a state of the art review of the extent of the liberalization of public services around the world. Seven areas of public services are examined: health services (including mental health services and nursing home provision), secondary and higher education, pensions, public employment services, labour market training, criminal care services (particularly prisons), and social care services for children and the elderly.
International experts in these seven areas of services provide insight into the mechanisms leveraging the liberalization of social services and the impacts on employees' income security, employment security, labour market security, on health and working conditions, on opportunities for skills and career development, and on voice representation security. The book addresses questions of governance and makes policy recommendations for consideration by policy makers, employers, trade unions, civil society, academics, and international organisations. Issues discussed include the role played by international financial institutions, how foreign firms enter the market for provision of services, the impact of GATS on services, impact on clients receiving services and the impact of liberalization on the quality of service delivery. The research project was conducted jointly between the International Labour Office and Public Services International, the Global Union Federation of public service workers.
Available upon request by emailing your name/address to: DISTR@ilo.org. Approx. 400 pages. Free of Charge. Available from ILO Geneva, July 2006.

"Airport check-in work, an increasingly de-professionalized occupation largely performed by women, characterized as high work demand with low worker control, has been little studied, until now. We examine the occupational health and safety issues together with the impact of current management practices and work organization, on check-in workers' health. Check-in workers face numerous obvious as well as less apparent hazards. High rates of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) result from frequent lifting/handling of baggage and prolonged standing while operating a computer in a very constrained space. Other hazards include violence, environmental conditions, and uneven workload distribution. This report identifies that quick turnaround policies, work intensification, lack of training, lack of autonomy and of a voice in workplace decision-making all have significant negative impacts on check-in workers. This two-country study, conducted in Canada and Switzerland, examined check-in workers and employer injury/lost work time data at three types of airports representative of airport designs worldwide. Results show MSDs are common among check-in workers, may lead to temporary or permanent disability, and disrupt sleep and non work activities. Injury risks associated with semi-mechanised baggage systems are comparable to those of industrial workplaces. Frequent bending, awkward postures, prolonged sitting, and pulling baggage provoke MSDs even at fully mechanized check-ins. Passenger aggression and violence are widespread, while protective management policies are rare. Current trends to reduce costs using less experienced, younger workers diminish job security, while less attention is paid to working conditions. Adjustable workstations, change in management practices, skills development, increased worker participation and voice are recommended to make improvements for check-in workers."
(Authors' abstract)

The manual has been developed to help empower workers to increase their level of control over their own work situations, to protect their health and well being, and to improve their level of basic security. This is a practical guide, providing workers, and employers, with tools to: identify work security problems, tackle problems from a worker centred perspective, use barefoot research tools, use the results of Barefoot Research to improve their work security, organize for work security.