Les suicides de salariés et de demandeurs d’emploi ont été les révélateurs d’une souffrance liée au monde du travail. Il est préféré à ce terme, trop subjectif et compassionnel, mal défini car n’apparaissant ni dans le vocabulaire juridique, ni dans la sémiologie médicale, celui de Risques PsychoSociaux (RPS).

Nous retiendrons les définitions suivantes qui articuleront les trois communications :

– facteurs de risques psychosociaux : éléments organisationnels et relationnels relatifs à l’environnement professionnel du travailleur qui peuvent potentiellement entraîner chez lui des troubles psychiques;

– troubles psychosociaux : troubles psychiques chez un travailleur, dont l’origine est directement liée à son milieu professionnel;

– risques psychosociaux : probabilité de survenue de troubles psychosociaux relative à une exposition à des facteurs de risques psychosociaux.

Selon la définition de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, les RPS sont entendus comme risques pour la santé mentale, physique et sociale, engendrés par une exposition à des conditions d’emploi, des facteurs organisationnels et relationnels en milieu professionnel susceptibles d’interagir avec le fonctionnement mental.

Diverses dispositions juridiques (art. L 4121-1 et suivants du Code du travail) et accords nationaux interprofessionnels s’imposent aux employeurs. Leur responsabilité sur la sécurité et la protection de la santé physique mais aussi mentale des travailleurs est engagée. Ils doivent inscrire les RPS dans une démarche globale de prévention et d’évaluation des risques.

Notre discipline doit s’engager dans la prise en compte du stress au travail, dans l’identification (prévention secondaire) et dans la prise en charge des RPS (prévention tertiaire). Elle doit remédier à l’absence d’inscription de pathologies psychiques dans un tableau de maladies professionnelles. Des réponses sont apportées tant dans le domaine des préventions que dans celui de la reconnaissance de pathologies psychiques d’origine professionnelle.

Le monde du travail a profondément changé et il ne ressemble guère à celui décrit par Émile Zola dans Germinal. À la pénibilité essentiellement physique s’est progressivement substituée une pénibilité psychologique. Les facteurs de stress sont nombreux : changements et réorganisations de plus en plus fréquents, course effrénée à la performance et à la productivité, perte du sens de son travail, nombreuses attentes non satisfaites, relations entre individus parfois tendues voire violentes, dissolution du lien social et du collectif. Ces facteurs représentent de véritables risques pour la santé. Les diverses études publiées indiquent que c’est près de 25 % des salariés qui souffrent de stress. Le lien entre stress psychosocial et diverses pathologies est maintenant bien établi scientifiquement. Non seulement pour des troubles psychiques (dépression, burn out, suicide) mais aussi physiques (maladies coronariennes, troubles musculo-squelettiques). Comme le souligne le Bureau international du travail, les risques psychosociaux sont non seulement les risques émergents dans le monde du travail mais ils représentent aussi le plus grand danger pour la santé des travailleurs et la performance économique des entreprises qui les emploient. Des actions de prévention doivent donc être mises en place à tous les niveaux (préventions primaire, secondaire et tertiaire) mais aussi dans tous les domaines (l’organisation du travail, les pratiques managériales et l’aide à apporter aux individus). Si les acteurs de cette prévention (internes ou externes aux entreprises) sont nombreux, car c’est l’affaire de tous, le rôle du psychiatre est essentiel. En collaboration avec les services de santé au travail, il apporte son expertise dans le domaine des pathologies mentales tant dans l’identification et le diagnostic que dans leur prévention ou leur prise en charge.

The article considers the temporary labour migration program in Canada, which catapults workers from the global South into work and wider relations in the global North, in the context of debates swirling around Anglo-American labour law. There is widespread consensus that labour law is experiencing a sustained moment of crisis in the face of neoliberal globalization. Not widely considered is how this crisis relates to temporary labour migration and the global South-North relationship and, in turn, how this relationship may impact emergent approaches tasked with transforming or transcending the field. Critical interventions seeking to confront the “southern question” within the socio-legal imaginary have gone largely unnoticed by labour law scholars. Transnational labour law may hold potential for an alternative account of the racialized production of unfree migrant labour. But only if its adherents can truly confront the dynamic unfolding through temporary labour migration—that of the “South of the North.”

The relationship between morality and economy has been muddied in the course of disciplinary specialization. While dominant paradigms in economics abstract from the moral dimension, recent approaches to morality and ethics in anthropology neglect the material economy. E. P. Thompson’s “moral economy” has been an influential bridging concept in recent decades, but recent inflationary usage has highlighted shortcomings. Following an overview of the disciplinary debates, the moral dimension of economic life is illustrated in this paper with reference to work as a value between the late 19th and early 21st centuries in Hungary. Contemporary workfare is explored with local examples. It is shown how discourses of work and fairness are being extended into new ethical registers to justify negative attitudes towards a new category of migrants.

The relationship between work and family is considered with an emphasis on policy solutions. Australian policy is a case example in the context of international trends. A mismatch between policy initiatives and familial and personal priorities constitutes a new social risk associated with demographic and sociocultural development. Contemporary trends, both nationally and internationally, evidence solutions to the “problem of demographic aging” by adopting a form of economic instrumentalism. This restricts legitimate age identities to those associated with work and work-related activity. When applied to family life, such a focus runs the risk of reducing policy interest in intergenerational engagement to unpaid care roles, while personal development and age-related life priorities are ignored. The need for cultural adaptation to population aging is becoming accepted in policy debate and is considered here as an effective response to the personal, social, and economic risks of population aging and associated impacts on family life.

We conducted a mixed-methods study – the focus of this article – to understand how workers in long-term care facilities experienced working conditions. We surveyed unionized care workers in Ontario (n = 917); we also surveyed workers in three Canadian provinces (n = 948) and four Scandinavian countries (n = 1,625). In post-survey focus groups, we presented respondents with survey questions and descriptive statistical findings, and asked them: “Does this reflect your experience?” Workers reported time pressures and the frequency of experiences of physical violence and unwanted sexual attention, as we explain. We discuss how iteratively mixing qualitative and quantitative methods to triangulate survey and focus group results led to expected data convergence and to unexpected data divergence that revealed a normalized culture of structural violence in long-term care facilities. We discuss how the finding of structural violence emerged and also the deeper meaning, context, and insights resulting from our combined methods.

Gerontologists have regarded retirement as a negative event and seldom have investigated the successful retiree or older worker. This study provided descriptive data about both of these groups by triangulating quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-one retired and 30 employed professionals over the age of 60 were assessed for general levels of well-being and life satisfaction. They were then interviewed about the meaning and significance of their careers, and the strategies used to cope with job-related problems. Results showed both groups to be involved in meaningful social relationships, and well-adjusted and satisfied with their current lives. Differences between the groups emerged from the interviews: Employed professionals valued the prestige and challenge of a career; retirees mentioned supportive interpersonal relationships and the need to complete a job. Workers also mentioned delegating authority and establishing networks as valuable coping strategies. Some disciplinary differences were also noted within each group. These results underscore the usefulness of blending qualitative and quantitative data in research on work and retirement.

The purpose of this feminist narrative study was to examine the experiences of women in four different health professions (nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, and social work) who provided care to elderly relatives. Although caring is a central and common feature of the personal and professional lives of many women (Baines, Evans, & Neysmith, 1991; Baines, 2004), the separation of professional, paid caregiving from family, unpaid caregiving among health care providers is problematic. Study findings suggest that female health professionals who assume familial responsibilities continually negotiate the boundaries between their professional and personal caring work. Despite the use of a variety of strategies for managing their double-duty caregiving demands, many women experienced a dramatic blurring or erosion of these boundaries, resulting in feelings of isolation, tension, and extreme physical and mental exhaustion. These findings suggest that women who are double-duty caregivers, especially those with limited time, finances, or other tangible supports, may experience poor health, which warrants further study.