Workers' perceptions, knowledge and responses regarding occupational health and safety: a report on a Canadian study

This paper presents data from interviews with 492 rank and file workers. It examines aspects of workers' perceptions, knowledge and actions regarding workplace hazards and views these as indicators of the potential strength of labour in improving occupational health and safety. Respondents had a strong consciousness of ways in which their work might damage their health and they or their fellow workers had experienced half of the symptoms they mentioned. However, they lacked information on the results of environmental and medical monitoring, their core legal rights and the more effective strategies for reducing hazards. Few respondents sought information and few were persistent in dealing with their worries about hazards. Knowledge of their rights under the current occupational health and safety legislation was linked with taking such actions. It is suggested that workers' pursuit of their health and safety concerns might be facilitated if they had better access to information about their legal rights and mechanisms for dealing with hazards in the workplace.