IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i1p346-d475044.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19: Insights from a Survey of Members of the International Commission for Occupational Health

Author

Listed:
  • Jacques Tamin

    (Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL, UK)

  • Oluranti Samuel

    (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos State 10001, Nigeria)

  • Anna Suraya

    (Faculty of Public Health, Binawan University, East Jakarta, Jakarta 13630, Indonesia)

  • Ikenna D. Ebuenyi

    (Assisting Living & Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland)

  • Nisha Naicker

    (National Institute for Occupational Health, National Health Laboratory Services, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa)

  • Minha Rajput-Ray

    (NNEdPro, Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, Global Centre for Nutrition and Health, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted on the health and wellbeing of populations directly through infection, as well as through serious societal and economic consequences such as unemployment and underemployment. The consequences could be even more severe for those more vulnerable to the disease, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. Indeed, there is evidence that such vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected in terms of both, their health and the socioeconomic impact. The aim of our study was to determine whether occupational health (OH) professionals thought that the COVID-19 pandemic might further disadvantage any particular group(s) of vulnerable workers globally, and if so, which group(s). A cross-sectional study was carried out with a sample of OH professionals by means of an online questionnaire which was shared via email within the ICOH (International Commission for Occupational Health) community. Data was collected over a period of two weeks in May 2020 and 165 responses from 52 countries were received. In this paper, the responses relating to questions about vulnerable workers are reported and discussed. Globally, our responders felt that those in less secure jobs (precarious employment (79%) and informal work (69%)), or unemployed (63%), were the most at risk of further disadvantage from this pandemic. The majority felt that their governments could act to mitigate these effects. There were suggestions of short-term alleviation such as financial and social support, as well as calls for fundamental reviews of the underlying inequalities that leave populations so vulnerable to a crisis such as COVID-19.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacques Tamin & Oluranti Samuel & Anna Suraya & Ikenna D. Ebuenyi & Nisha Naicker & Minha Rajput-Ray, 2021. "Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19: Insights from a Survey of Members of the International Commission for Occupational Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-15, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:346-:d:475044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/346/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/346/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sergio Iavicoli & Antonio Valenti & Diana Gagliardi & Jorma Rantanen, 2018. "Ethics and Occupational Health in the Contemporary World of Work," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Lindhout & Genserik Reniers, 2021. "Involving Moral and Ethical Principles in Safety Management Systems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Moonok Kim & Younjae Oh & Byunghye Kong, 2020. "Ethical Conflicts Experienced by Nurses in Geriatric Hospitals in South Korea: “If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Jasminka Mrdjanović & Slavica Šolajić & Branislava Srđenović-Čonić & Višnja Bogdanović & Karaba-Jakovljević Dea & Nebojša Kladar & Vladimir Jurišić, 2021. "The Oxidative Stress Parameters as Useful Tools in Evaluating the DNA Damage and Changes in the Complete Blood Count in Hospital Workers Exposed to Low Doses of Antineoplastic Drugs and Ionizing Radia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Ming-Jui Yeh & Hsi-Chen Liu, 2018. "Comment on Iavicoli et al. Ethics and Occupational Health in the Contemporary World of Work. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15 , 1713," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-2, November.
    5. Bonnie Rogers & Anita L. Schill, 2021. "Ethics and Total Worker Health ® : Constructs for Ethical Decision-Making and Competencies for Professional Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-15, September.
    6. Paul A. Schulte & George L. Delclos & Sarah A. Felknor & Jessica M. K. Streit & Michelle McDaniel & L. Casey Chosewood & Lee S. Newman & Faiyaz A. Bhojani & Rene Pana-Cryan & Naomi G. Swanson, 2022. "Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-21, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:346-:d:475044. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.