Sylvie Ouellet

Body maps: an indicator of physical pain for worker-oriented ergonomic interventions

Abstract Work-related musculoskeletal health damage causes pain and suffering, and can lead to disability. To prevent it, it is important to detect not only diagnosed musculoskeletal disorders but also early signs of impending damage. Workers have important information on workplace risks and health damage, and should be involved in the process of identifying damage. However, controversy surrounds the pain reports of workers and their claims for compensation. We have found that a body map is a useful tool for systematising and analysing workers pain reports.

Activity Analysis and Workplace Training: An Ergonomic Perspective

This chapter offers an overview of the field of Francophone research on learning through work and is intended as a platform for presenting a delineation of this field. More specifically, the chapter presents a range of research traditions that have secured important places within the French-speaking research community, as illustrated in the chapters collected in the book. This overview aims at explaining the disciplinary background underlying these traditions, identifying key premises and concepts and specific research and training methods that have emerged in that particular context. The chapter also attempts to illuminate the specific conceptions of learning these traditions are built on and have contributed to promote. To achieve that outcome, three research traditions are described, in relation to their historical and cultural backgrounds and key ideas and methodological focuses. The first of these three traditions comprises what is referred to Francophone ergonomics and the epistemology of the so-called work analysis. The historical and disciplinary origins of emergence of the Francophone tradition of ergonomics are presented, along with its central concepts, contributions to methods and applications in the field of vocational and professional training. Second, a focus is placed on the tradition of language use in relation to work, training and learning. These issues have acquired considerable visibility within Francophone research and have developed into a specific research tradition. An overview of the main research topics that have emerged within this tradition and key contributions to vocational and professional training issues is presented below. The third tradition is that referring to learning in connection with specific organisational contexts. Here, the social dimensions of learning are foregrounded, and contributions from Francophone researchers are illustrated and their alignment with other research traditions and particularly those widely disseminated in the Anglophone world. The final section of the chapter draws together a range of ideas which have emerged beyond and across these specific research traditions and that can be seen as having played an influencing role on the ways questions related with learning through and for work have been addressed in the Francophone world.

Programs for Integrating New Workers into Quebec Mining Companies: Formal Structure and In-the-Field Adaptations

Faced with fluctuating production marked by high-demand periods, as well as worker retirement and worker migration to other industries, the mining industry is experiencing massive hiring needs at a time when there is a shortage of trained and experienced workers. Compounding these problems of workforce availability are labour planning practices usually designed to “maximize production and minimize costs in response to immediate pressures” [1]. Moreover, OHS issues are prominent in this sector, where the frequency rate for compensated work-related injuries was 2.3 times higher than the average for Quebec companies for the 2005–2007 period [2]. At the request of the Joint Health and Safety Association, Mining Sector, a field study was conducted to document the conditions conducive to the safe and secure integration of new workers, the problems encountered, and possible avenues for improvement. This paper presents the formal integration programs implemented in the companies studied and the adaptations made during their application in the field.