Contenu du sommaire : Santé et travail : déjouer les risques ?

Starting anew with a joint effort to improve safety on the job. This article is a summary of what occurred when the authors were commissioned by a waste collection company to investigate why accidents at work were on the rise despite a considerable investment in safety. By observing working practices and interviewing personnel throughout the company hierarchy it was very clear that a culture and a distinctive identity had developed with regard to risk taking. The authors recommended that the company abandon their over reliance on technology and management systems in favour of collaborative thinking. Such an innovative approach would enable the company to steer a middle course between the need to take into account the demands of the job on a person's body over time and the need to provide a quality service on a daily basis.

Job fulfillment regardless of the pain. In this article the author demonstrates that there is no obvious relationship between work and health and that an activity considered as harmful because of the likelihood of illness or injury may in fact be a source of fulfillment. A perfect example of this is the forest craftsperson. In order to carry out their trade, these forest workers must come to terms with its inherent violence, in other words, they have to give meaning to the physical/mental strain, the pain and the fear that is part of their job. And to do this they need to believe that they will eventually master their professional environment, but they also need to be willing to grit their teeth when the body is suffering.

Handling the unexpected without being caught unawares. What is the best way to handle an unexpected event without being caught unawares ? This question sits at the very heart of cultivation, and from our observations as ergonomic consultants of small ornamental horticulture businesses, is particularly pertinent for those who supervise the cultivation. We analysed how supervisors were able to anticipate and manage the health risks for themselves and their workers when faced with a number of highlighted “dreaded” situations. This made us aware that some seemingly unavoidable problematic situations can nevertheless be incorporated into improvements to work organisation.

Grey areas in the prevention of occupational cancer. By identifying the error concealment mechanisms evident in risk prevention procedures, this article reveals that the relevance and effectiveness of these procedures are accepted without question. Three additional areas are addressed : what the risks are exactly, how risk prevention practices are implemented and what role the chsct (national commission for hygiene, safety and working conditions) is deemed to have in workplace risk prevention. A detailed analysis of the procedures revealed the limitations in objectifying the connections between work and health.

Issues of work and health in decisions about a person's entitlement to benefits. In this article the authors examine how various perceptions of the relations between work and health affect the multidisciplinary teams tasked with deciding a person's entitlement to disability benefits. By having to deal with workers, who for health reasons find themselves on the margins of employment, these teams regularly gain an insight into the most dramatic “effects of work on a person's health”, especially in terms of physical and emotional exhaustion. Team members are constantly required to make decisions as to the extent to which centralised disability support services should remedy both the shortcomings of the labour market and the dysfunctionality of professional bodies.