Occupational health services for non-regular female workers at a company in Japan

Abstract

The ratio of non-regular to regular staff has increased in Japan annually. However, occupational health services are extremely poor in comparison to those for the regular staff. As occupational health staffs for 25 years we have overseen a company that is a consumers' cooperative. This company has 43 shops, food preparation facilities, delivery centers to individual households and so on. This company consists of about 1000 regular workers and over 4000 non-regular female workers. We conducted investigations regarding workloads and mental health conditions of non-regular female workers using the Job Content Questionnaire. This group shows a substantially higher score of the Job Demand, and also a substantially higher score of the Job Control than those of all Japanese workers and workers in this field. Both the scores of support from supervisors and support from colleagues for the objects are higher than the scores of the average of all Japanese workers and that of the Japanese workers in the same field. As a result, they show good mental health levels. For improved health status, the non-regular staff should be provided with occupational health services that are similar to those of regular workers.