migrant farm workers

Workers' Health and Return to Work in a Changing World of Work

Welcome

The Policy and Practice in Return to Work after Work Injury (PPRTW) Research Group is presenting a conference titled Workers' Health and Return to Work in a Changing World of Work in person at the University of Ottawa June 9 to 11, 2024.

The conference will also include a tribute to the late professor Katherine Lippel, an international leader in labour and health policy, and founder of the research group holding the conference.

For more details, you can find here the conference program. 

puzzle piece with missing worker

Conference focus

The conference will focus on policy and practice related to occupational injury and illness prevention and rehabilitation, particularly on workers in situations of vulnerability, and on the role of unions, workplaces, and human rights organisations in supporting their return-to-work. An additional focus will be on challenges in the fair application of workers’ compensation policy, especially with respect to workers who are precariously employed, geographically mobile, low wage earners or experiencing mental health issues.

Conference keynote speakers

Karen Messing

Karen Messing

is a Professor Emeritus at UQAM who has won several awards for her pioneering work on gender, environmental health, and ergonomics.

Steve Mantis

Steve Mantis

is an advocate for injured workers and people with disabilities as well as co-founder of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups and the Canadian Injured Workers Alliance.

Gabriel Allahdua

Gabriel Allahdua

is a former migrant worker and author of the book Harvesting Freedom: The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada.

Information

Expected audience

  • Researchers interested in questions concerning precariously employed workers and/or workers in vulnerable situations due to work injury or illness, employment situation or social location, including immigrant and racialized workers, temporary foreign workers, geographically mobile workers, and Indigenous workers.
  • Students and postdoctoral researchers working with these researchers
  • Decision-makers and managers in government ministries and agencies, public organizations, international agencies (e.g., ILO, WHO, ISSA)
  • Members of civil society and non-governmental organizations, community groups and NPOs, unions and employer associations and joint sector-based associations

Conference topics
Potential presentation topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Injury/illness and return to work
  • Workers’ compensation policy and implementation
  • Challenges faced by workers in low-wage and precarious work
  • COVID, health and work
  • Indigenous workers and health
  • Immigrant and racialized workers and health
  • Mobile workers, health and return to work
  • Temporary foreign workers and health
  • Mental health and work
  • Gender equity in work-related health and injury processes
  • The role of unions and advocates in work disability management
  • Health-care professionals and work injury
  • National and international comparisons of work injury and return to work

Important dates
Call for Abstracts and Sessions Opens | September 20, 2023
Registration opens | September 20, 2023
Abstracts and Sessions Submission Deadline | December 8, 2023
Notification of abstract and sessions decision | February 8, 2024
Travel Funding Application Deadline | February 15, 2024
Registration Deadline | April 15, 2024

Special publications
A special issue of NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy will be produced following this conference. Those interested will be asked to indicate their interest at the time of abstract submission.

Organizing committee
Ellen MacEachen, University of Waterloo
Stéphanie Premji, McMaster University 
Barbara Neis, Memorial University
Émilie Giguère, Université Laval
Jean-Paul Dautel, Université de Québec en Outaouais
Maxine Visotzky-Charlebois, doctoral student, University of Ottawa 
Elizabeth Kwan, Canadian Labour Congress
Kishower Laila, South Asian Women’s Rights Organization 
Steve Mantis, Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups representative

We are grateful for the support of the Social Sciences Humanities and Research Council and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.