Work scheduling and arrangements

A new policy on temp agencies under consideration at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is “inadequate” and fails to “address and rectify the very real dangers temporary employment agencies pose to workers,” says a coalition of Toronto-based legal clinics. Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports in a story citing Institute for Work & Health research on temporary agency workers.

Published: The Toronto Star, February 2018

Amina Diaby died last year in an accident inside one of the GTA’s largest industrial bakeries where, the company says, worker safety is its highest concern. The 23-year-old was one of thousands of Ontarians who have turned to temporary employment agencies to find jobs that often come with low pay and little training for sometimes dangerous work. The Star’s Sara Mojtehedzadeh went undercover for a month at the factory where Diaby worked

Published: The Toronto Star, September 2017

With regulatory change, Ontario's Ministry of Labour addresses gap in experience rating system after IWH study shows temp workers falling through the cracks.

Published: December 2015

An IWH study finds injured workers who work shifts are no more likely to leave their jobs than injured workers who work standard shifts, despite being in poorer health.

Published: November 2015

Research evidence has been accumulating on the adverse health consequences of night, evening and rotating shift work. New research is now suggesting that, not only are shift workers at greater risk of work injury, they are more likely to have a harder time recovering should an injury occur. What's more, injury rates don't improve when shift workers switch into regular 9-to-5 work schedules, as Mustard Post-doctoral fellow Dr. Imelda Wong explains.

Published: November 2015

Experts say significant stretches of overtime without adequate time for recovery result in diminished work performance and pose potentially serious health risks. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH)'s Dr. Cameron Mustard comments on risks of mistakes and fatigue

Published: The Ottawa Citizen, September 2015

The second in a four-part series looks at the precarity of temp agency work. The Institute for Work & Health's Dr. Ellen MacEachen is interviewed about her research on injury risks among temp agency workers.

Published: The Toronto Star, May 2015

There is plenty of evidence that it harms health, but a new report claims that 10 years of shift work ages your brain by an extra 6.5 years. So should you be worried? asks Luisa Dillner in an article that cites Institute for Work & Health.

Published: The Guardian, November 2014

IWH study finds those who move into or out of shift work face the highest risks of work-related injury

Published: November 2014

The complex employment relationship between temporary agency workers, temp agencies and client employers creates loopholes and incentives that may leave low-wage temp agency workers more vulnerable to workplace injuries, says research from the Institute for Work & Health.

Published: July 2014