The Influence of Work Arrangements on Hazardous Exposures: A Study of Australian and United Kingdom Horticulture

Abstract This paper describes how work arrangements, particularly subcontracting and temporary employment, are associated with factors related to pesticide exposure and to worker perceptions of pesticide exposure in two countries with similar but not identical regulatory frameworks: Australia and the United Kingdom. Data are drawn from 67 semi-structured interviews with horticultural fieldworkers, employers, labour providers, and industry, union and government representatives. The regulatory frameworks were compared and the real, or perceived, impacts of regulatory provisions on occupational safety and health outcomes were examined. For both countries, a number of conclusions are drawn. Subcontracting and temporary work arrangements appeared to affect occupational safety and health, including pesticide exposures. Factors explaining this include economic pressures, worker mobility and the fracturing of tasks into separate contractual units that contributed to hazardous forms of work disorganisation, and regulatory failure. Financial pressure was accentuated by the subletting of work under a subcontracting system; employment and income insecurity, as well as intense competition for work, contributed to a range of hazardous practices among labour subcontractors, including accepting hazardous tasks. The critical factor seemed to be that the work was temporary and itinerant. Reactive and infrequent government inspection exacerbates the insidious health risks associated with exposure. The findings raise questions about the extent to which the vulnerability that comes from being foreign-born can be disassociated from vulnerability arising from the work arrangement.