Enhancing social protection for precarious workers in Canada and Peru

• Share findings from the ANITA and EMPOWER research studies to look at social protection policies and access to healthcare for precarious workers in Canada and Peru
• Highlight the role of precarious workers in supporting research and advocacy
• Build and strengthen a knowledge mobilization network of learners, researchers, and policymakers and knowledge users with an interest in social protection policies and global health

This is an in-person event at the Chestnut Conference Centre in Toronto, ON. Please register by Monday, October 21st at 11:59 PM EST to secure your spot.

• International Development Research Center (ANITA)
• Women RISE Initiative (ANITA)
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (ANITA)
• Human Sciences Research Council (ANITA)
• Metcalf Foundation (EMPOWER)

Partners:

• CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases
• Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
• Upstream Lab
• IMEK Centro de Investigación en Mercadeo & Desarrollo
• CinAPS Centro de Investigación en Atención Primaria de Salud

The Anita project examines the working conditions and access to health care of women domestic workers (DWs) in Peru as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. It will propose recommendations to improve DWs’ access to social protection in the event of future pandemics. Through a collaboration with researchers in Peru and Colombia, the Upstream Lab is contributing to research that will:

• Characterize and compare the health and working conditions of women DWs before COVID-19 and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Identify the barriers that affect the knowledge of access to social protection policies by women DWS in the formal and informal economies.
• Co-design feasible and context-adapted recommendations to improve access to social protection among women DWs.

Impact: The project will develop recommendations to respond to the specific needs and context to improve the social protection policies of domestic workers in Peru. The findings may also build a foundation for designing potential interventions to improve the working conditions of domestic workers in Peru, and precarious workers globally.

Precarious work is a growing phenomenon in Canada’s health sector despite evidence showing a correlation between adverse health outcomes and precarious employment. A growing number of Personal Support Workers (PSWs) are in non-unionized, part-time, and temporary jobs.

Coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic also sheds light on the unsafe work conditions that many PSWs face. In light of these concerns, our study aims to:

• closely examine the general working conditions and health of PSWs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
• better understand the work conditions and safety of PSWs in the GTA during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) project engages a PSW Advisory Committee that provide guidance on the study design. We employ the Respondent Driven Sampling Model to recruit more than 600 PSWs in a cross-sectional survey and select 30 PSWs to be interviewed.

Impact: The findings from this project can improve our understanding of worker needs in the health sector, which could be used to inform policy reforms and advocacy on changes to employment standards. The means of knowledge dissemination and key recommendations will be developed with the Advisory Committee. In addition to peer-reviewed publications, we hope to engage with labour organizations to share the knowledge garnered from the study.

Archna Gupta, MD CCFP MPH PhD, is a Scientist at Upstream Lab. She is a researcher passionate about health equity and global health. Her research focuses on the intersection between public health and primary care, how to best serve vulnerable patients or those who face structural marginalization and how to equitably serve growing populations with expanding health needs locally and globally.

She is also a practicing family physician and family medicine obstetrics provider at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Unity Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Gillian Kranias, MES, loves teams, approaches and tools that centre anti-oppression and co-learning in action for systems change. Their training includes decades of ‘learning through action’ with powerful leaders from diverse equity-seeking communities. They also have a Certificate in Community-Based Research and an MES in Community-based Organizing for Environmental and Social Change.

Gillian works 3 days a week at Upstream Lab. They lead community engagement for the CanTreatCOVID study in Ontario. They also support other project teams to partner ‘in a good way’ with health equity leaders, grassroots groups, and community organizations.

Aminata Mageraga, MPH, is a Research Coordinator who joined the Upstream Lab in June 2023. She is working on the anti-racism, social isolation, and Empower PSW network evaluation studies. During her time in the lab, Aminata hopes to use her educational background to promote community-based interventions to promote health and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations.

Debra Slater is a professional PSW who sits on the advisory board of the Upstream Lab’s EMPOWER Project. She is experienced in connecting and sharing resources with other PSWs who are facing social injustice and discrimination in the healthcare community.

She has taken part in many community engagements related to the EMPOWER project, including serving as a panelists at events organized by the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities and the Ontario YMCA, highlighting the failure of Long-Term Care in Ontario and how it impacts the lives of PSWs. She also contributed to an op-ed published in the Toronto Star on the impact of COVID-19 on PSWs and their unfair treatment by the health system. Most recently, she was interviewed in a podcast produced by the Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University.

Janeth Tenorio-Mucha is an early career researcher at CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases. She is particularly interested in implementation research — the translation of research insights into actionable strategies. Her work centers on access to healthcare services and medicines, not only assessing the impact of socio-economic determinants on health disparities but also using her research to drive improvements in health equity.

Janeth has a Ph*rm*cy and Biochemistry (BSc) background and holds a master's degree in Epidemiology (MSc). She has strong experience studying chronic health conditions, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Global Health, where she aims to integrate learnings from epidemiology, health sociology, and the life course perspective.

Pinky Hapsari is a registered nurse and public health professional with a passion for health equity and evidence-based practice. She holds a BSc in Nursing from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Population and Public Health from the University of British Columbia. She was a Research Coordinator at the Upstream Lab and managed the EMPOWER project that focused on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being of personal support workers in Toronto.

As a co-investigator on ANITA, Pinky contributes her research insights gained from the EMPOWER project and she currently works as a primary care nurse.

Karina Romero Rivero is a Peruvian epidemiologist and environmental health researcher, currently at the CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, coordinating the ANITA project funded by the IDRC (Canada), which addresses challenges and constraints of social protection policies for women domestic workers in Peru. Experienced designing, implementing, and supervising protocols for community-based epidemiological research studies.

Her research interests include environmental health disparities, the political and social determination of health, and empowering communities, with a focus on contributing to the development of evidence-based public policies. She is also deeply committed to decolonizing academic practices and combating structural violence, racism, and inequality.

Host or Publisher Upstream Lab