GROCER-HP Study

Grocery store workers were catapulted into public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as everyone came to recognize their importance in sustaining daily life. As many of us were able to work remotely to reduce our risk of exposure to COVID-19, grocery employees continued to work in person at their regular hours or pick up overtime while interacting with numerous customers. Governments, employers, and unions responded in various ways to public pressure to protect these “heroes” from the very real  threat of COVID-19 exposure. These responses were fragmented and often were limited to early in the pandemic. So, despite being called “essential workers” and “heroes”, the grocery store was a particularly strenuous place to be employed. The stress placed on workers by the competing interests between labour, policy, and economic actors has implications for their health and well-being. Amidst post-pandemic tensions, it is essential to understand what needs to be done to reduce precarity in the grocery industry to better support the equitable treatment of these essential workers.