Eurofocus: Europese ondernemingsraden

Abstract

The work load of disabled and healthy workers compared The work load of disabled and healthy workers compared We investigate how disabled workers compared with non-disabled workers on how they experience their work load. We use the 2000-2004 Dutch Labour Force Survey (EBB) data with respect to 'having to use force at work', 'working under noisy conditions' and 'working under time pressure'. Having to use force declines from 2000 up to 2003 in both categories but increases in 2004. Working under noisy conditions does not change much. Working under time pressure declines in the 5-year period, both among disabled and non-disabled workers. Our main finding is that disabled workers experience their work load as more demanding than workers without a handicap or workers with a handicap that doesn't hinder them while working. Our logistic regression analyses, in which we control for age, gender, education, professional attainment, and sector of employment, show that the differences found may only partly be explained by these control variables. Thus, differences between the two categories remain significant. Our data do not allow us to conclude that disabled workers' jobs are objectively more demanding. We may conclude, however, that disabled workers experience their job as more demanding than more healthy groups of workers. Since demanding working conditions have been shown to lead (disabled) workers to leave the labour market earlier, we suggest that the more demanding experienced working conditions among disabled workers may be an important reason for their labour market participation to fall back during the last years.