Using Dialogue to Address Jurisdictional Inequities in Access to Return to Work Resources and Identify Policy Weaknesses for Workers in Situations of Vulnerability.

Abstract

In Canada, occupational health and safety (OHS) and workers' compensation are primarily provincial responsibilities and there is no national institute for OHS research. Research capacity and many civil society resources to which injured workers can turn for support are primarily concentrated in three provinces. Labor force composition, employment options, vulnerability to injury, and return to work (RTW) challenges vary across jurisdictions and are changing over time, but not at the same rate. When coupled with jurisdictional inequities in RTW research and civil society supports, these differences have the potential to contribute to policy gaps and situations where issues addressed in one jurisdiction emerge again in another. This article reports on a multi-stakeholder, virtual dialogue process designed to help identify and address these potential inequities by transferring research insights related to RTW for workers in situations of vulnerability (e.g., precarious employment) and findings from a comparative policy scan to Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), a province with very limited RTW research capacity and civil society supports for injured workers. We describe the context, the dialogue process, key results from the policy scan, and we reflect on the opportunities and constraints of these knowledge synthesis and exchange tools as vehicles to address jurisdictional disparities in RTW research, policy and supports for workers injured in precarious employment and other vulnerable situations in a context of economic and policy change.