Community-based personal support workers’ responses to health and safety risks: tensions between individual and collective responsibility

Abstract

Across sectors, neo-liberal logics render individual workers responsible for health and safety while limiting public protections against hazards. This article considers how ‘responsibilisation’ strategies shape responses to health and safety risks among community-based personal support workers in Ontario, Canada. Using mixed-methods data, we consider how structural and demographic conditions exacerbate risks. We argue that the relational aspects of care and the private nature of working in clients’ homes shape perceptions of individual responsibility, even when organisations provide supports. We engage with feminist political economy to articulate the macro-, meso- and micro-dynamics relevant to health and safety in this feminised occupation.