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October 25th, 2023: The Future of Work is Now: First Results from the California Work and Health Survey
By Ed Yelin, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
The California Labor Laboratory has just completed data collection on a comprehensive survey of a large random sample of the State’s working age population. This presentation will highlight results indicating the extent to which alternative and contingent work is prevalent in California and the impact on the well-being of its population.
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June 28th, 2023: Fired by an App: Rideshare Drivers' Experience with Discrimination, Harassment, and Unfair Termination
By Alejandra Domenzain, MA, Nicole Moore, Winifred (Winnie) Kao, and Tyler Sandness
Rideshare Drivers United and Asian Law Caucus
What rights do you have when your boss is an algorithm? In the era of app-based work, workers are subjected to surveillance, control, and even termination by systems that can be discriminatory and hard to challenge. “Fired by an App” is a joint report by Rideshare Drivers United and Asian Law Caucus based on their survey of over 800 Uber and Lyft drivers in California about their experiences with deactivation and the ways in which unchecked customer discrimination, bias, and retaliation impact drivers’ pay, benefits, working conditions and ability to work. Join us to hear from impacted drivers and the report’s authors on the report’s findings and recommendations.
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March 22nd, 2023: Reimagining Job Quality Measurement
By Jenny Weissbourd
The Families and Workers Fund
For too long, the US has measured the health of our economy by counting the total number of jobs, not whether these are good, dignified jobs that provide financial stability and a ladder to opportunity. As we rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine our measurement systems to more accurately reflect working peoples’ experiences and aspirations. This presentation will lift up findings from the Reimagining Job Quality Measurement report, including bold, actionable recommendations for government, philanthropy, business, and the nonprofit sector to strengthen how we collect, connect and use data to tell a fuller story about the economy and the experiences of the workers who power it.
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January 25th, 2023: The Home as a Workplace
By Eileen Boris
PhD, University of California Santa Barbara
The home has haunted the formulation of global labor standards, including occupational health and safety. At a time when people worldwide have increasingly moved their workplace home, this presentation considers the home as a workplace in two interlocked ways: first, the outsourcing of income generating work to personal homes, and second, domestic and household workers who earn income by going into other people’s homes. This webinar will explore home workplaces in the context of the gig economy, and as the organization of conventional labor unravels. The pandemic has revealed the limits of the home as a place of employment, even as this arrangement gestures to a new world of work. Rather than a progress narrative, Dr. Boris will tell a tale of the return to home-based work with a twist: from outwork as an evil to be eradicated in favor of home-based work, and of home workers as deserving of decent work, like all laborers.
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September 27th, 2023: Unequal Rights: The Patchwork of State and Local Labor Protections in the U.S
By Kristen Harknett, PhD, University of California, San Francisco
Explore a new state and county policy database compiled by the Shift Project, which doc-
uments efforts made by states and local governments to expand or curtail protections for
workers. Data includes policies affecting wages, schedules, paid time off, COVID-19 safety
measures, and some often-overlooked aspects of worker protections such as the rights and
protections of transgender and nonbinary workers and undocumented workers. This data
offers insight into a changing policy landscape for workers in a polarized legal landscape,
and serves as a public resource for labor and policy researchers interested in policy impacts.
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May 24th, 2023: Supporting Healthy Work: Law & Regulation
By Walter M. Stella and Cozen O’Connor
This webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of the legal landscape that supports a healthy workplace. Learners will explore how current laws promote and protect employee well-being in the workplace, and identify gaps where additional regulations may be needed. Learners will also discuss practical steps employers can take to promote a healthy workplace, including policies and programs that support total worker health.
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February 22nd, 2023: Improving Worker Health Through Organizational Changes
By Glorian Sorensen, PhD, MPH
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Harvard Chan Center for Work, Health and Well-being
Addressing underlying threats of worker safety, health and well-being relies first and foremost on improving the ways work is organized, designed, and managed. Central to such interventions is the focus on work practices, policies and procedures. Organizational interventions may be guided by a conceptual model that can serve as a map of priorities. We will discuss the model developed by the Harvard Center for Work, Health and Well-being, which highlights the importance of conditions of work, including physical, such as chemical and physical exposures, as well as organizational conditions of work such as an increasing pace of work and rising job instability. A case study conducted in the food service industry will be used to illustrate opportunities and challenges to implementing organizational interventions.
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January 18th, 2023: Home Office Ergonomics Post COVID-19: Carpe Diem
By Carisa Harris, PhD
CPE University of California San Francisco & Berkeley
The COVID-19 pandemic changed how knowledge work gets done. In early 2022, roughly six in ten U.S. workers with jobs that can be completed from home continue to work from home all or most of the time. As more people work from home than ever before, and as the demand for remote work increases, workplaces continue to find optimal balance for collaborating with colleagues onsite. This presentation will discuss how the pandemic changed how we work, and how the home-office work balance will continue to evolve.