Safe nurse-patient staffing ratios: A coalition of nurses unions (National Nurses United) have been standing together to pass Federal legislation based on the California safe-staffing ratios law passed after a 13 year struggle in 2004. Studies show that higher staffing ratios save lives; yet understaffing is a major issue RNs struggle with every day. Understaffing impacts their “workload/demands” and can lead to burnout and high turnover. Whether or not you’re a nurse, join efforts to support this legislation that protects us all, as well as promotes healthy work for nurses.

A labor management study to reduce workplace stressors and burnout: This was a study by researchers with healthcare staff and unions in a hospital in Quebec, Canada beginning in 2001. It is one of several studies that have involved a team of workers (in this case, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders in the hospital). They met regularly to come up with specific ways to improve the health of all care staff at the hospital by reducing work stressors including: improving teamwork (support), staffing (demands), work organization (hours, schedules), training (skill discretion, job control), communication (support) and ergonomic design. It was highly successful after three years, stressors and worker burnout were significantly reduced. Taking part in a study is not always possible, but you can set up and/or join a workplace committee or team at your workplace that is interested in assessing healthy work and coming up with innovative ways to reduce or prevent stressors. Find examples in other studies for more ideas about how you can work with others to improve your work.

Housekeeper Study and Workload Reductions: Hotel housekeepers face a higher risk of injury than other hotel workers, in part due to high workload and pressure to clean hotel rooms quickly. In 1999, the hotel workers union in San Francisco, after documenting hazards faced by the housekeepers, was able to bargain a contract, reducing the hours quota that each worker was required to clean in a day from 15 to 14. Since then, hotel workers and their union (UNITE-HERE) have bargained contracts on workload, conducted research, educated workers and the public, helped pass a California regulation on preventing hotel housekeeper musculoskeletal injuries, and also campaigned against sexual harassment of hotel housekeepers. Find out more and how you can help.

The Healthy Workplace Participatory Program at the Center for the Promotion of Health in New England (CPH NEW), a NIOSH Total Worker Health^® Center of Excellence, provides a scientifically-developed toolkit that engages employees in addressing a wide range of work environment, work organization, safety, and employee health issues. It works for starting new programs or enhancing existing programs and includes tools to check whether your organization is “ready” and information to help convince management of the necessity for this kind of program. You can pair these tools with the Healthy Work Survey, conduct focus groups with employees/coworkers, learn how to create teams to design “interventions” (programs that can address work stressors like demands, support, work-family conflict, etc.) and find ways to implement and evaluate those programs.

US Department of Labor – Laws governing work hours: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not limit the number of hours an employee can be required to work. For non-exempt employees (usually wage earners), the FLSA requires workers to be paid at time-and-a-half after working 40 hours in a work week. The FLSA also has no provisions regarding employee scheduling, so an employer can change an employees hours and schedule without notice or without obtaining employee consent, unless there is a prior agreement between an employer or employee/employee representative (e.g. collective bargaining contract).

Changing “on-call scheduling” and irregular schedules: Food service workers, retail workers, cleaners and many other occupations have irregular or “on-call” schedules which play havoc with people’s lives, like scheduling child care at a moment’s notice, finishing college courses, etc. Some success stories addressing these issues include: 1) San Francisco, which was the first city in the U.S. to pass a Retail Worker Bill of Rights (in 2014), and 2) retail workers and others who came together in New York City and successfully passed a law in 2017 that ends “on-call” scheduling in the City. Support the Schedules That Work Act, a bill in Congress that seeks to remedy this problem nationally.

NIOSH resources on sleep, fatigue, shift-work and long hours: A significant number of U.S. workers are exposed to health and safety risks associated with shift work, long work hours, and related workplace sleep and fatigue issues. If you are working in the aviation, transportation, and healthcare industries, are an emergency responder, or otherwise find yourself working long hours and night shifts, this can be particularly dangerous to your health and well-being. NIOSH has made available a webinar series and other resources about how shift work and long hours affect fatigue and sleep, as well as trainings and resources for coping.

A Better Balance is an organization that “seeks to reduce the stress of conflicting work-family demands and responsibilities, as well as end discrimination against workers (most of whom are women) who care for their children or other family members.” They pursue campaigns to strengthen legal protections and to advance policies that provide paid leave, paid sick time, fair and flexible work, workplace equality (including gender equity), pregnant worker fairness and breastfeeding support at work. They offer you resources and information on these issues and your rights at work.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act – The PWFA is a new law that requires covered employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an “undue hardship.” Some state laws extend these rights to smaller employers too. (For example in California, where you have to work for an employer with 5 or more employees). National COSH recently released a new fact sheet in English and Spanish.

The Work Family Health Network is an interdisciplinary team of researchers who have conducted research on workplace psychosocial interventions to improve the health and well-being of working people and benefit employers. These researchers found that workers supervised by family-supportive managers were significantly more likely to experience lower levels of work-family conflict, higher job satisfaction, lower intention to change jobs, and higher reports of physical and mental health. If you are experiencing work-life balance issues, check out these important toolkits. These tools can be used in your workplace to help teams find ways to reduce work-family conflict and increase productivity, by decreasing unnecessary work, increasing everyone’s control over their time and providing flexible work schedules.

The Better-Work Toolkit introduces ways in which “knowledge workers” have improved their flexibility, collaboration, and autonomy to enhance their work-life balance.

Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) is an organization in the U.S. that has been offering comprehensive resources about workplace bullying—for individuals who have been bullied and to organizations that want to address bullying in the workplace. WBI includes self-help advice for individuals, personal coaching, research, books, public education, union assistance, training for professionals, employer consulting, and legislative advocacy. In 2001, WBI launched the Healthy Workplace Bill, which has now been introduced in 31 states/territories. If you feel you want to get involved in supporting this bill in your state, see how you can help.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. If you have experienced workplace sexual harassment or discrimination, you can find out more information or file a complaint with the EEOC:

Laws & guidance on protection of pregnant workers

Laws & guidance on workplace sexual harassment

Laws & guidance on filing an employment discrimination charge with EEOC

Coalition for Restaurant Safety and Health (CRSH) is a Philadelphia-based coalition that helps restaurant workers and owners identify and prevent sexual harassment. Although sexual harassment pervades the restaurant industry, restaurant workers often do not report it. They may think that their treatment comes with the job. They may fear retaliation for reporting, or they may believe that their employer won’t do anything to address it. CRSH offers free trainings to restaurants to prevent sexual harassment and to promote respectful and safe workplaces in the restaurant industry.

Helping Survivors was founded in 2022 with the mission to heal, educate, and empower survivors of sexual abuse, sexual violence, and domestic violence. Helping Survivors has created multiple work-related resource pages including Sexual Assault and Harassment in the Workplace and many resources to guide individuals through reporting sexual harassment. If you receive no support from your company or are subjected to retaliation, contact a lawyer immediately. You can also call the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline to chat with a trained staff member who can provide you with crisis support while maintaining your confidentiality.

The Minnesota Association of Public Employees (MAPE) created an anti-bullying toolkit for their union members to use. This union has led the charge in understanding and combating this serious problem and offers tools to guide workers in navigating a bullying work environment and helping those who may be victims of bullying. MAPE is working together with members to ensure a “happy, healthy and safe work environment for all.”

WorkplaceFairness.org is a non-profit organization that believes that the fair treatment of workers is sound public policy and good business practice, and that free access to comprehensive, unbiased information about workers’ rights – without legal jargon – is an essential ingredient in any fair workplace. They offer tools and networks of legal professionals who can help you understand your rights and to build a legal case when necessary. They have information on hiring and classification, harassment and discrimination, wages and hour problems, benefits, workplace surveillance, whistleblowing and retaliation, as well as health and safety.

The Portable Benefits for Independent Workers Pilot Program Act would allow the U.S. Department of Labor to authorize grants to states, local governments, and nonprofits to design new models to provide and implement “portable benefits” (retirement savings, workers compensation, life or disability insurance, sick leave, training or educational benefits, healthcare and more) for independent workers such as contractors, temporary workers and self-employed workers, and would especially benefit low-wage precarious workers. This bill could help to alleviate some of the stressors related to being a precarious/gig worker.

The National Domestic Workers Alliance: Domestic workers are housekeepers, nannies, and elder care providers. The work caring for our children, seniors, people with disabilities and other home care work that makes all other work possible, is often invisible and can be physically and emotionally demanding. However, domestic workers (who are mostly women) are “gig/temp workers” or “independent contractors” excluded from many of the basic protections guaranteed by the Fair Labor Standards Act—things like minimum wage, overtime, sick and vacation pay or health insurance. The NDWA, formed in 2007, passed the “Domestic Worker Bill of Rights” and continues to advocate for improved working conditions, leadership and skill-building. If you are a domestic worker in the U.S., you can now become a member with access to resources, benefits, leadership training, and community.

Join the Freelancers Union. (It’s free!) The Freelancers Union promotes the interests of independent workers through advocacy, education, and services. The Freelancers Union was established in 1995 and seeks to represent the 57 million “independent workers” in the U.S. They provide access to benefits such as health, dental, term life, disability, and liability insurance. They also have tools available to start or join local communities of freelancers in 25 major cities (such as SPARK) and other resources including a blog for freelancers. They also advocate for policy change including conducting the annual Freelancing in America survey and the Freelance Isn’t Free campaign.

The U.S. Department of Labor – Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments that are non-exempt. Certain employees are exempt from the FLSA if they earn a salary over a certain amount or earn most of their income from commissions. (Find out if you are exempt.) You can also find information regarding work hours, leave, termination, breaks and meal times.

Fight for $15 began in 2012 when 200 fast-food workers walked off the job to demand $15/hr and union rights in New York City. Today, it is a global movement in over 300 cities on six continents. It includes fast-food workers, home health aides, child care teachers, airport workers, adjunct professors, retail employees—and underpaid workers everywhere. If you are struggling with low wages and making ends meet, find information, support or join the Fight for $15 movement. Even if you are not a low-wage worker, you can still help support the struggle for fair, living wages for all workers.

Family Values @ Work is a national network of 27 state and local coalitions helping spur the growing movement for family-friendly workplace policies such as paid sick days and family leave insurance which will result in better individual and public health, and greater financial security for families, businesses and the nation. If you are willing to work towards family-friendly work policies such as paid sick days and paid leave, there are many opportunities to get involved.

Healthy Families Act: The American Public Health Association (APHA) urges support for this bill (introduced in 2017) which would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year. Creating a national paid sick leave standard would allow millions of Americans to earn the time necessary to recover from illnesses like the flu, access health care and take care of a sick family member.

Oxfam America – Best and Worst State to Work in America index ranks states according to their wage policies (changes to federal minimum wage), worker protection policies (paid sick leave, pregnancy protections and equal pay), and right-to-organize policies. They also show that there is a relationship between a state’s ranking in the Best State to Work Index and positive economic and health indicators. The higher the index, the less infant mortality and poverty rates, and the higher the life expectancy, median income, GDP per capita, and labor force participation rates in that state.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970 gives employees and their representatives the right to file a complaint and request an OSHA inspection of their workplace if they believe there is a serious environmental hazard or their employer is not following OSHA standards. Learn about worker rights protected under OSHA.

ChemHat, or the Chemical Hazard and Alternatives Toolkit, is an internet database that offers up easy-to-find information about chemicals in the workplace so you can protect yourself, coworkers and family. You can look up specific chemicals by name and answer such questions as “Can this chemical in my workplace affect my health?” and “Are there safer alternatives?”

Worksafe is a California-based organization (part of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health) and is dedicated to promoting and protecting the basic right of all people to a safe and healthy workplace. You can get free worker trainings about health and safety rights, hazard awareness, immigrant rights and workers compensation. You can also get resources to find out how to file an OSH complaint, address retaliation, or protect yourself as a whistleblower.