Warehouse job jurisdiction falls under the logistics sector. Warehouse workers are responsible for the daily logistical issues. Besides, warehouses fall under a company’s distribution channel. As such, warehouse workers are passive distributors of the company. In general, warehouse workers fall under the Fair Labor jurisdiction. Some of the legal provisions of warehouse workers include minimum twenty minutes break if the worker is going to work for more than forty-eight hours. Also, warehouse workers should not work for an average of more than forty-eight hours per week. However, workers who opt out of this clause should do so in writing to the management of the warehouse. Finally, warehouse workers are entitled to eleven consecutive hours’ rest in any twenty-four-hour period. Similar to other professions, warehouse workers are subject to their code of conduct and ethics, regulations, guidelines and policies. For instance, they are supposed to be accountable, this means that warehouse workers have to maintain high integrity standards, such as accurate record keeping and confidentiality of the records ( Bosmans et al., 2017) . Secondly, warehouse workers have to be honest and reliable. The logistics sector demands that workers to be effective communicators and offering expert advice transparently based on the anti-trust laws in the country in which they operate.
Some of the common injuries and occupational hazards that warehouse workers face includes the following. Forklift accidents which may occur due to the forklift overturning and crushing workers. They can also cause accidents during loading and offloading exercises. For example, workers can fall in between forklifts or on the elevated pallet causing them serious injuries. Secondly, warehouse workers are prone to fall injuries due to slippery floors or uneven floors in the go-down. This increases their risk to injuries and physical harm. Lastly, warehouse workers are exposed to loading dock injuries; the docking area can be hazardous due factors such as being hit by trucks, or hurt themselves when loading distribution trucks. On a normal day, the main functions at a warehouse include loading and offloading of goods. This means that the main functions of a warehouse can be summarized into receiving, put-away, storage, picking, packing, and shipping of goods ( Mukhina, Chah & Wang, 2015) . Hence, warehouse workers to optimize these functions in the go-down consequently streamlining warehouse operations, reducing costs and errors and maintaining a higher perfect order rate. The number of workers in a warehouse is dynamic, this means that the size of the warehouse determines the number of employees. As such, warehouse management will always hire workers based on the demand. There are no gender and cultural discrimination in hiring warehouse workers. However, there are more men in the loading and offloading section as compared to women since men are more energetic.
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Warehouse workers have unionized their job. For instance, in the Canada, warehouse workers are unionized under the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) which agitates for better working conditions and compensation for their workers. In addition, they have a collective agreement health and safety and/or work organization that would impact health and safety. For example, the union demands that workers should be given protective gear to reduce their risk to occupational health hazards such as inhaling of impure air in the warehouse. The union demand that warehouse workers be subscribed to the Canadian Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) guidelines in worker protection ( Lippel & Walters 2019) . However, the duties and responsibilities of warehouse workers include completing shipments by processing and loading orders. They also prepare orders by processing pending requests and supply orders. This includes pulling materials, packing boxes; placing orders in delivery area. They might complete the deliveries by driving delivery trucks to destined vendors.
The work in the warehouse is divided based on qualification and competence. The workers are paid on an hourly basis. However, they work in shifts, each for eight hours a day. The casual and unskilled laborers who are mainly engaged in loading and offloading always have rotating duties in the warehouse. As earlier discussed, warehouse workers are prone to occupational injuries such forklift accidents that can be fatal or lead to permanent physical damage of body parts such as breaking of legs. Slips and fall, especially on uneven floor in parking. These falls can lead to frequent health challenges such as meniscus tears, ligament tears, strains, hyperextensions and frequent physical injuries.
Warehousing work contains several risk factors. Some of the main risk factors include inadequate safety training and knowledge that exposes workers to avoidable injuries. Warehouses can avoid this risk by adequately training their workers and offering refresher courses to increase to enhance their alertness. Secondly, workers are exposed to harmful substances, that affects the quality of their health. The warehouse workers are also vulnerable to physical strain since they are required to handle heavy and bulky items over time. This causes them to experience varying levels of physical strain and stress. The main diagnostic disease related to this work is breathing difficulties due to perpetual exposure to contaminated air from fumes, dust, smoke from delivery trucks and leakages from damaged goods in the warehouse. The signs and symptoms include wheezing, increased breathing rate, grunting, nose flaring and retractions. Diagnostic challenges include the reoccurrence of the disease due to continuous exposure to the same causative agents at the warehouse. The long-term effects of breathing difficulties may lead to seizures and general body weakness reducing the productivity of the workers.
These risk factors can be identified through various ways. Firstly, warehouse management can embrace training and retraining of their workers on safety measures to ensure they remain conversant with the hazards associated with work. Besides, workers need to be provided with protective gear to cushion themselves against physical injuries. However, the need to reduce these risks should be coupled by a good working environment which will significantly reduce vulnerability of workers to avoidable risks such as falls, slips and trips. For instance, the warehouses can be carpeted with rough surfaces to reduce instances of falls and related physical injuries. Notably, the Canadian logistics sector has rules, policies, regulations and controls that help reduce or prevent warehouse workers from occupational risks and hazards. For instance, the Canadian OH&S provides guidelines that organizations have to ensure that their workers are protected from occupational hazards.
Logistics industry workers face numerous challenges in their workplaces. For instance, some of them have little knowledge about their rightful minimum renumeration. Amazon, warehouse workers compensation should receive minimum hourly pay stipulated in the law; however, some of them lack information regarding their minimum pay. Likewise, sometimes those warehouse workers do not receive compensation from the employer when they suffer controversial injuries or illness at their workplaces. Amazon should ensure all of its employees have insurance medical cover and develop strategies to compensate workers who suffer injuries. Therefore, most of the logistics workers have little knowledge regarding minimum wages and right for compensation after suffering injuries while executing their duties.
Nonetheless, the Canadian parliament develops regulations governing operation of the industry to ensure smooth interaction among the industry players. Such regulations define licensing requirements, performance standards and exemption for industry players. For example, Fair Workplace, Better Jobs Act of 2017 requires employees to treat their employees fairly by increasing number of paid vacations from 2 to 3 weeks to all employees with at least five years of service ( Chang, 2018) . Again, the Act also increased minimum wage to $ 15 per hour effective 2019. However, despite of existence of numerous industry regulation, industry players like Amazon, warehouse worker still have little knowledge about those regulations. For example, some of them receive less than $ 15 per hour as stipulated in the law. Again, others who having been working for Amazon for more than 5 years don’t know they are entitled to at least three weeks of paid cation. So, I believe Amazon workers face most of the challenges due to lack of adequate know. Therefore, the logistics industry has adequate regulations but stakeholders lack knowledge about such regulations.
Remarkably, the logistics industry suffered significant impact of Corona virus. The countries lockdown led to decrease in logistics activities leading to a significant decline in industry revenues and also loss of jobs. Therefore, corona virus led to loss of jobs, revenue and closure of various firms in the industry. Many casual laborers lost their jobs due to the need to observe social distance and stay at home guidelines as the sure means of reducing the spread of the contagious virus.
References
Bosmans, K., Lewchuk, W., De Cuyper, N., Hardonk, S., Van Aerden, K., & Vanroelen, C. (2017). The experience of employment strain and activation among temporary agency workers in Canada. Society, Health & Vulnerability , 8 (1), 1306914.
Chang, K. (2018). Fair workplaces, better jobs: Is Ontario addressing precarious employment?. Critical Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal , 14 (1), 31-45.
Lippel, K., & Walters, D. (2019). Regulating health and safety and workers’ compensation in Canada for the mobile workforce: now you see them, now you don’t. NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy , 29 (3), 317-348.
Mukhina, M., Chah, K., & Wang, T. (2015). Improving the processes in a warehouse: A case study.
