The workplace, social work, and social justice: Framing an emerging research and practice agenda

Abstract

Protecting the health and well-being of workers naturally aligns with the social work mission to advance human dignity. The workplace can both create and perpetuate health disparities by shaping health and well-being at multiple levels and in socially patterned ways. Yet workplace issues are rarely on social work research and practice agendas. This article serves as a call to action for social work, as a discipline, to engage with the workplace as a means of advancing the field's core values. It first provides evidence for why engagement with workplaces is critical for advancing social justice. It then presents evidence for the ways in which workplace exposures and experiences, at multiple levels, shape worker health and well-being. Finally, it provides concrete steps for how the skills and values of the social work profession can be applied to the workplace through research, practice, education, and policy efforts, and by extension improve population health and well-being.