Strategies to develop and maintain occupational health and safety measures in small businesses employing immigrant workers in metropolitan Montreal

Purpose – In large urban centres, immigrants are employed by businesses in which there is a high incidence of serious or fatal occupational injuries. This paper aims to present findings on the lack of knowledge and understanding in terms of: explanations for the implementation or lack of, procedures; technical expertise in prevention and the inability of the internal actors to implement changes.Design/methodology/approach – A study design with a comparison group is used. The observation sample is comprised of 21 small businesses (SB), of which 16 meet the following criteria: the enterprise had fewer than 50 employees; and at least 25 per cent of the workers were born outside the country. The other five serve as a comparison group; the only difference in these SB is that they employ fewer (<25 per cent) immigrant workers.Findings – The findings indicate that SB employing immigrants have totally or partially failed to implement health and safety management in area of occupational health and safety.Practical...

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