Aspects Of Working Conditions Research Articles

Working conditions of women factory workers in industrializing Thailand, 1960–1990s

ABSTRACT This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of Thai women workers’ experience during the economic boom between the 1960s and 1990s. Specifically, the paper focuses on the working conditions of female factory laborers located in Bangkok and neighboring provinces during this transformative period. To accomplish this, the paper utilizes a variety of previously unused primary sources: quantitative data from a series of surveys conducted by the Department of Labor and other governmental organizations, along with qualitative evidence from ethnographies, recorded interviews, and reports by non-profit organizations. Three aspects of working conditions are considered: health and safety, remuneration, and working hours. It is argued that women workers faced unsafe work environments and long hours, while the growth of their real incomes lagged behind that of GDP per capita. Despite socioeconomic and cultural obstacles to unionizing, this paper finds that collective action empowered women workers and gave them a voice in addressing these issues.

Bataan Peninsula State University Employees Readiness Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic: Basis for Strategic Plan for the New Normal

All sectors worldwide, including the workplace have been devastated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic had a massive impact on the nature of work in the workplace. Schools all over the world have been forced into a rapid change of plan in terms of working habits, from face-to-face to working from home. This study explored employees’ work readiness among BPSU employees. Literature and studies were reviewed, and questionnaires related to employee readiness and respondents’ profile. Data from 207 university employees were used in the study. The self-made survey questionnaires were validated and reliable based on statistical tools used in this study. Dissemination and collection of data were collected through Google Forms. The study is a descriptive study to determine the employee’s readiness and its correlation with a personal profile. The results showed that respondents’ profile in terms of age, sex, and employment type has a significant relationship with employee readiness upon reopening the workplace. The literature cited herein develops a framework as to the necessary measures the school administration must do in the re-opening of the workplace. The paper aims to measure the level of employee readiness amidst the COVID-19 pandemic upon reopening the workplace. The result of this study can be a basis for a strategic plan for the “new normal” through the prism of pillars that are key to ensuring a smooth recovery, and the attendant opportunities and challenges. The implications of the continuing crisis on the working conditions of employees are discussed. Aside from the lens of employee readiness, this paper recommends other aspects of working conditions in the workplace as the basis for a strategic plan for the new normal. Keywords: Readiness, New Normal, COVID-19 Pandemic, Strategic Plan

Working Conditions and Mental Health in a Brazilian University.

The highest prevalence of mental illnesses and mental suffering in contemporary society has raised awareness of the theme and their connection to work. In Brazil, university servants (professors and technical-administrative staff) are a focused occupational group. We developed this research with the objective of exploring the relationship between the perception of working conditions and the mental health of these servants. Structured questionnaires were applied to 285 servants, 33.5% being professors and 66.5% technical-administrative staff. Regarding working conditions, the questionnaires included items that measured 15 primary factors and questions about their contracts and legal conditions. To evaluate mental health, the participants answered a questionnaire about common psychic symptoms, negative and positive affects, self-esteem, and family-work conflict. We composed groups of participants according to their mental health indicator scores (cluster analysis), and after that, we compared the mean scores in working conditions for the groups. Then, we found that the mean scores of 13 from the 15 working condition factors were significantly different between the mental health groups. Our results showed the importance of improving working conditions in universities to prevent mental illnesses. Understanding the content of each working condition factor presents potency to contribute to defining the priorities among different aspects of working conditions.

Quality of Employment Index for the tourism sector in developing countries

Although job quality has become an active field of study over the last two decades in developed countries, it still remains an under discussed concept in developing regions such as Latin America, where the incidence of work informality and low wages are particularly high. As quality of employment is a multidimensional concept and not homogeneously defined in the literature, we follow a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to build a Quality of Employment (QoE) Index for salary earners using household survey micro data of Uruguay from 2016-2019. Uruguay leads the Better Jobs Index launched by the Inter American Development Bank in 2017, which constitutes the only index with a macro-approach to measure quantity and quality employment conditions in the region. We consider several aspects of working conditions: employment, earnings, hours worked, occupational safety and social security coverage. We focus on the tourism sector, which presents low job quality characteristics at the same time it accounts for 7.2% of employment in Uruguay. Furthermore, we found a sex-based gap of employment quality against women in tourism, a difference that is not observed in the trade sector. QoE in tourism shows a greater dispersion in the distribution of employees, indicating the presence of more inequalities among these workers compared to those of trade. Other results show that job quality in tourism is lower for those unskilled, but that there are still many skilled workers facing low quality. Finally, if we consider the activities that conform tourism, workers do better in hotels and travel agencies rather than in restaurants and entertainment.

Comparing the mental health trajectories of four different types of keyworkers with non-keyworkers: 12-month follow-up observational study of 21 874 adults in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BackgroundThere are concerns that keyworkers may be at a greater risk for psychological distress than non-keyworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little research has included keyworkers outside of the healthcare sector or has disaggregated keyworkers into different subgroups.AimsTo examine longitudinal changes in mental health over 12 months during the COVID-19 pandemic comparing four different groups of keyworkers with non-keyworkers.MethodLongitudinal data were from 21 874 adults living in England (21 March 2020 to 22 February 2021). Latent growth modelling was utilised to compare growth trajectories of depressive and anxiety symptoms in non-keyworkers and four types of keyworkers: (a) health and social care workers, (b) teachers and child care workers, (c) public service workers, and (d) essential services keyworkers (such as food chain or utility workers).ResultsWhen accounting for both time-invariant and time-varying covariates, keyworkers in the essential services category had consistently higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms than non-keyworkers across the whole of the study period. There was little difference in the mental health trajectories between health/social care, teachers/child care and public service worker categories and non-keyworkers.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that the risk for poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic varies within the broad category of keyworkers generally, and that those working in utility, food chain and transport roles are especially at risk. Future research should focus on identifying which aspects of working conditions may be contributing to occupational stress in these groups.

Working conditions of physical education teachers in European higher education institutions

Aim: One of the problems of modern higher education is the so-called "New core curricula", which oblige PE teachers to make many changes in the way they work. PE teachers face several restrictions to provide PE programs that improve students' physical fitness, cognitive development, and overall health. The research aimed to investigate the working conditions of university PE teachers in selected European tertiary institutions. Materials and Methods: The quantitative research employed purposive sampling. Five academics volunteered to collect information on 66 European tertiary institutions located in Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Turkey, Spain, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Finland and Kosovo. Quantitative data were collected using questionnaires with a set of questions concerning characteristics of tertiary institutions and various aspects of working conditions of university PE teachers. Results: Two thirds of the university PE teachers held master's degree in PE since in over 42% of surveyed institutions, a master's degree in physical education was required to conduct PE classes. The majority of PE teachers (84.4%) were employed full-time, and on average worked 38.6 days in an academic year. Significantly more PE teachers with masters and doctoral degrees (p = 0.012) were employed full-time, or fixed term in public, middle size HEIs (p <0.001). In HEIs in cities with less than 500,000 residents, PE teachers were more often encouraged for participation in CPD (p = 0.049). Significantly more public HEIs fully or partially covered the costs of CPD or conferences (p <0.001), whereas in non-public or small HEIs significantly more PE teachers had to finance the costs of CPD. Moreover, significantly more (p =0.037) universities implemented specific PE teachers’ evaluation criteria with a personal record of their achievements. Conclusion: There is a pressing need to improve qualifications of university PE teachers, as many European HEIs do not support PE teachers in CPD. Furthermore, lack of CPD opportunities, low salaries and lack of career promotion perspectives combined with lower psychological resilience, may result in professional burnout syndrome.

The Importance of Working Conditions for Interpreters

This paper discusses about the importance of working conditions for interpreters. A literature review is used as an approach for this paper. For the past years, the employers have not taken the working conditions for interpreters into account. This paper mentions three aspects of working conditions that have to be paid full attention in order for the interpreters to do their job professionally: physical wise, emotional wise, and financial wise. The employers needs to provide these three aspects for the interpreters to produce good outcome.

Adapting the Form of the sanitary and hygienic characteristics of working conditions to the new Sanitary Law

Introduction. The current Form No. 362-1/y-2001 "The sanitary and hygienic characteristics for the working conditions of an employee having suspicion of an occupational disease (poisoning)" does not meet the requirements of Sanitary Law developed within the framework of the "regulatory guillotine". It complicates the investigation of occupational diseases and carrying out an objective examination of the connection between the disease and the profession. The study aims to analyze the Form for the sanitary and hygienic characteristics (SHC) of working conditions and substantiate proposals for its adaptation to the current regulatory legal acts to objectify the investigation of occupational diseases cases and the examination of the connection between the disease and the profession. Materials and methods. We carried out the expert-analytical study. We analyzed and compared data from Rospotrebnadzor (2001-2020) on occupational morbidity and Rosstat (2014-2020) on employment in harmful and (or) hazardous working conditions. We also studied the SHC (503) submitted for examination of the connection between disease and profession (including forensic medical examination). The structure of the Form for the completeness of the presentation of issues on various aspects of working conditions, the quality of the compilation and content of the SHS was determined in accordance with the current Sanitary Law. The authors evaluated the structure of the Form for the presentation of questions on various aspects of working conditions, determined the quality of the compilation and content of the SHC in accordance with the current Sanitary Law. Results. With a decrease in the number of newly registered cases of occupational diseases over 20 years by more than 3.7 times, the share of workers in harmful and(or) hazardous working conditions in the main types of economic activity decreased in 2020 relative to 2014 in 1,1 time (37.3%). A comparative assessment of the standardized indicators of harmful production factors specified in the SHC and the ones approved in SanPiN 1.2.3685-21 revealed their complete inconsistency. The results of in-depth analysis of 503 SGH allowed us to determine the most typical errors in assessing production factors at workplaces: incorrect assessment of standardized single-digit noise indicators (equivalent sound level A for an 8-hour working day), vibration (equivalent level corrected along the Z-, Y-, X-axes ); lack of data on dust load and the average value of air temperature - THC-index; assessment of the labour severity without considering the technological operations performed, etc. We noted the predominant assessment of working conditions by the main factor developing an occupational disease, without considering the accompanying risk factors that aggravate its effect. We also noted a significant underestimation of the levels when assessing the general transport, technological and technological vibration due to the differences between hygienic standards and the norms adopted in the Methodology for conducting a special assessment of working conditions. SCH contains no information on lighting, biological factor, labour intensity in 67.0-75.0% of cases. Conclusion. We substantiated proposals for improving Form No. 362-1/y-2001 of the SHC of working conditions, considering an electronic form of the document, revising the instructions for filling out the SHC.

Working Conditions in Global Value Chains: Evidence for European Employees

This article investigates a sample of almost nine million workers from 24 European countries in 2014 to conclude how involvement in global value chains (GVCs) affects working conditions. We use employer–employee data from the Structure of Earnings Survey merged with industry-level statistics on GVCs based on the World Input-Output Database. Given the multidimensional nature of the dependent variable, we compare estimates of the Mincerian wage model with zero-inflated beta regressions focused on other aspects of working conditions (overtime work and bonus payments). Wages prove to be negatively related to involvement in GVCs: workers in the more deeply involved sectors have lower and less stable earnings, implying worse working conditions. However, they are also less likely to have to work overtime. We prove that the analysis of social implications of increasing involvement of countries in global production must compare wage effects of GVCs with other aspects of complex changes in workers’ well-being.

Working conditions at a regional university in assessments of faculty

The article presents the results of an empirical study, the purpose of which was to determine the assessment of the working conditions at the regional university by the professor-staff. The study was carried out as part of the project “Transitive University in the face of global, national and regional challenges” at the Udmurt State University in September – October 2019. The sample consisted of 204 full-time professors (28 % of the total – 717 people). The results are divided into the following groups: assessment of various aspects of working conditions; assessment of the activities of university services; the most important problems of the faculty. Professors tend to highly appreciate those working conditions that are associated with their own contribution to the educational process: the moral and psychological climate in the team and observance of labor discipline. The lowest ratings were received: the opportunity to participate in field conferences, the effectiveness of the effective contract, the ability to provide benefits for the professors-staff, which, in turn, indicates an insufficient level of satisfaction with the incentives for professors. The main claims of the faculty to university services are reduced to excessive bureaucratization of management and educational processes. The most frequently mentioned requirements for the administration of the university regarding the improvement of working conditions are improving the efficiency of workflow, creating an electronic educational and managerial environment of the university. Among other problems that concern professors, there is a low interest of students in studying and the need to take exams and tests several times. Further clarification and separate studies require two issues identified as potentially problematic – this is the diagnosis of professional burnout of teachers and the provision of conditions to minimize its risks and consequences, as well as the difficulty in developing mechanisms to increase the effectiveness of interaction between professors and foreign students, overcoming language and cultural barriers.

Hygienic aspects of working conditions of workers in the Samara region

The factors of working conditions that affect the health of women during the working day are listed. Developed measures to create a favorable working environment for the female body.

Call centres and job satisfaction in Italy: employment conditions and socio-biographical patterns

ABSTRACTThe article examines job satisfaction in 21 Italian call centres. The results of research carried out on 1715 handlers indicate how dissatisfaction prevails among call centre representatives (CCRs) and how it is influenced by aspects related to some organisational characteristics (service delivered, size and organisational typology), on one side, and to different aspects of working conditions (contract, wage and tenure) and participants’ biographical and working profiles of CCRs (gender, age, educational attainment), on the others. However, the most interesting finding emerges by distinguishing different dimensions of job satisfaction (extrinsic and intrinsic-relational). In particular, the relationship between type of contract and job satisfaction is rather interesting. For non-permanent workers, in fact, the probability of being dissatisfied is decidedly greater if we consider the extrinsic dimension of job satisfaction. Instead, when the intrinsic-relational dimension is taking into account, atypical workers are no more dissatisfied than the permanent ones. Job insecurity and limited perspectives in terms of work alternatives, safeguards and rewards, seem to be the source of greatest dissatisfaction for Italian CCRs. This certainly does not surprise considering the Italian development model and its dualistic labour market, highly segmented between insiders and outsiders.

High mortality in manual occupations and the role of alcohol in 2001-2015 in Finland

Abstract Background High mortality is concentrated in low socioeconomic positions which may largely be explained by excessive use of alcohol. The aim was to identify specific manual occupations with high mortality and to examine whether there are differences in the role of alcohol in explaining the excess mortality among manual occupations with high all-cause mortality. Methods A register-based study of employees aged 30-64, followed for mortality 2001-2015. Age standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated to compare the mortality rates of manual occupations. The contribution of alcohol related mortality to excess mortality was obtained by comparing the excess mortality in all deaths and deaths not related to alcohol. Results Men had 31 and women 11 manual occupations with SMR statistically significantly over 120 compared to all employees. Mortality rates were highest among building construction labourers (SMR 180, 95% CI 163-199) among men and building caretakers (SMR 155, 95% CI 135-179) among women. With few exceptions, high mortality was a combination of high alcohol-related and high non-alcohol-related mortality. Among men, the contribution of alcohol-related mortality to the excess all-cause mortality compared to all employees was over 10% in half of the high mortality occupations. Among women excluding the alcohol-related deaths had a minor effect on all-cause mortality. Conclusions Diminishing the alcohol-related mortality would level excess mortality of high mortality manual occupations but not eliminate it. Targeting the improvement of working conditions and occupational health care to certain occupations would diminish the mortality differences between occupations and social classes. Key messages To prevent the high mortality of manual occupations, improvements should be targeted to several different aspects of working conditions. Occupational health care of manual occupations with high mortality should be improved and provide with early interventions towards risky alcohol behaviour.

Working conditions in hydrogen production: A social life cycle assessment

AbstractSocial impacts of novel technology can, parallel to environmental and economic consequences, influence its sustainability. By analyzing the case of hydrogen production by advanced alkaline water electrolysis (AEL) from a life cycle perspective, this paper illustrates the social implications of the manufacturing of the electrolyzer and hydrogen production when installed in Germany, Austria, and Spain. This paper complements previous environmental and economic assessments, which selected this set of countries based on their different structures in electricity production. The paper uses a mixed method design to analyze the social impact for the workers along the process chain. Appropriate indicators related to working conditions are selected on the basis of the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The focus on workers is chosen as a first example to test the relatively new Product Social Impact Life Cycle Assessment (PSILCA) database version 2.0. The results of the quantitative assessment are then complemented and compared through an investigation of the underlying raw data and a qualitative literature analysis. Overall, advanced AEL is found to have least social impact along the German process chain, followed by the Spanish and the Austrian. All three process chains show impacts on global upstream processes. In order to reduce social impact and ultimately contribute to Sustainable Development, policymakers and industry need to work together to further improve certain aspects of working conditions in different locations, particularly within global upstream processes.

Responsibilities, Caring Practices and Agriculture: Farmers’ Perspectives on Recruitment and Employer–Employee Relationships

AbstractWith Swedish agriculture as its point of departure, this paper seeks to explore farmers’ recruiting practices and employer–employee relationships. Taking on the employer’s role means becoming subject both to formal statutory obligations and to regulations on wages, security and other aspects of working conditions. This article focuses on the more informal aspects of acting as an employer. The results show that recruiting, interacting and engaging with employees involve multiple responsibilities towards individuals and society alike. The practices of care identified are thus both private and public in nature, and exist within a framework of norms and ethical principles, a ‘moral economy’. The farmers’ strategies and decisions are understood as merged into negotiations regarding their identity, tradition, role in society and position in a global industry. Caring practices are embedded in farming practices and the focus on recruitment and employers’ experience adds to a multifaceted understanding of caring practices in which male farmers’ caring practices, too, become visible.

A Concept Analysis for Improving Working Conditions

Improving working conditions is a concept of significance in the workplace, particularly in the public health setting. This is because working conditions in public hospitals have been described in literature as horrendous, and have a direct impact on the employees and patients’ health and safety outcomes. However, despite these poor working conditions, attempts to rectify the situation in public hospitals are directed to only a few aspects of working conditions such as salaries and long working hours instead of adopting a systematic approach which will target the multifaceted and interrelated aspects of working conditions. The poor working conditions in public hospitals and their effects on the health and safety of both employees and patients in health settings call for clarification of the concept “improving working conditions”. Clarification of the concept will clear the confusion regarding its meaning in healthcare settings, particularly in nursing. It will also assist healthcare workers, researchers and policymakers to direct their interventions on all issues that have an impact on working conditions. This paper explores the meaning of the concept of improving working conditions in the context of public hospitals.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Individual Coaching, Self-Coaching, and Group Training: How Leadership Makes the Difference

Few empirical studies have used a randomized controlled design to evaluate the impact of coaching, and there are even fewer that have compared coaching with other interventions. In the current field study, we investigated the relative effectiveness of coaching as an intervention to reduce procrastination. In a randomized controlled study, participants (N = 84) were assigned to an individual coaching, a self-coaching, a group training, or a control group condition. Results indicate that individual coaching and group training were effective in reducing procrastination and facilitating goal attainment. Individual coaching created a high degree of satisfaction and was superior in helping participants attaining their goals, whereas group training successfully promoted the acquisition of relevant knowledge. The results for the self-coaching condition show that independently performing exercises without being supported by a coach is not sufficient for high goal attainment. Moreover, mediation analysis show that a coach’s transformational and transactional leadership behavior influenced participants’ perceived autonomy support and intrinsic motivation, resulting in beneficial coaching outcomes. The results may guide the selection of appropriate human resource development methods: If there is a general need to systematically prepare employees to perform on specific tasks, group training seems appropriate due to lower costs. However, when certain aspects of working conditions or individual development goals are paramount, coaching might be indicated. However, further research is needed to compare the relative effectiveness of coaching with other interventions in different contexts.

Trajectories in the Prevalence of Self-Reported Illness Around Retirement

In this paper we used wave 1 (2002) to wave 6 (2012) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) to assess whether trajectories in the prevalence of self-reported limiting long term illness differed before and after retirement and whether any such differences in slope were found across socio-economic characteristics and the conditions of work in the final years of employment. The longitudinal analysis used a sub-sample of ELSA comprising those who retired between wave 2 (2004) and wave 6 (2012). We fitted a repeated measure logistic regression to model the trajectory in the log odds of illness before and after retirement. We found evidence of a slower increase in self-reported illness after than before retirement that was most strongly observed for those in the least favourable circumstances prior to retirement (lower social class, depressed prior to retirement and single). A similar retirement effect was observed for those in physically demanding occupations. Whilst we did not detect differences in post and pre-retirement slopes according to other aspects of working conditions we found higher rates of self-reported illness for individuals involved in unsatisfying jobs or in work where demands exceed rewards. These differentials were robust to inclusion of information on socio-economic circumstances and appeared to persist beyond retirement. Our interpretation of the results is that disadvantage across the life course makes those in the least favourable circumstances or involved in physically demanding work less able to draw on social, economic and health reserves to cope with the demands of work in the final years of employment. As a result these groups of disadvantaged individuals experienced a slower increase in rates of illness after than before retirement when the demands of work are removed. Proposals to increase retirement age without also tackling inequalities in circumstances in the final years of employment are likely to increase inequalities in self-reported health.

A Comparison between the Second Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) and the First KWCS.

BackgroundThe study was designed to assess the changes in working conditions through a comparative analysis of the characteristics of working conditions in 2006 and 2010.MethodsWe performed a comparative analysis of the data related to the first Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS) and the second KWCS in the categories of demographic characteristics, quality of labor, exposure to hazards, and health problems.ResultsFrom our analysis of the demographic characteristics, we saw an increase in labor force participation rate of women and elderly people. As a result of the investigation with regards to working hours, the ratio of employees who worked for ≥ 49 hours per week was decreased and the ratio of employees who worked for ≥ 40 h/wk increased. As for exposure to hazards, exposure to tobacco smoke notably decreased in 2010 compared with 2006. With regards to health problems, there was a sharp increase in the number of people who complained of muscle pain in their arms and legs.ConclusionKWCS data included many aspects of working conditions as a nationwide sample. In addition, because this is a periodic nationwide survey, the labor force, working hours, harmful factor exposure, and the change in health problems characteristics according to the flow of time could be investigated. The information comparing the main results of the first survey conducted in 2006 and the second survey conducted in 2010 obtained through this study can be used as an important base material for the establishment of the national policy.

Demographic and occupational predictors of stress and fatigue in French intensive-care registered nurses and nurses' aides: A cross-sectional study

BackgroundHealthcare workers (HCWs) working in intensive-care units (ICUs) are exposed to high physical and mental demands potentially affecting their health or having repercussions on patient care. Although several studies have explored the links between some aspects of working conditions in hospitals and HCW health, the complex dynamics at play are not fully understood. ObjectivesThis study aimed to explore the impact of a wide array of demographic, employment and organizational factors related to fatigue and stress of French ICU HCWs. Design and settingA cross-sectional study was conducted in ICUs of Paris-area hospitals between January 18, 2013 and April 2, 2013. All types of adult ICUs were included (medical, surgical and polyvalent). ParticipantsIncluded in the study were HCWs with patient contact (doctors, residents, registered nurses, nurse's aides and physical therapists). Participation was proposed to all eligible HCWs present during on-site visits. Temporary staff not typically assigned to the given ICU was excluded. MethodsData were collected using an individual questionnaire administered in interviews during day and night shifts (N=682). Stress and fatigue outcomes included the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10), the Nottingham Health Profile sleep and energy level rubrics and the current fatigue state at the interview. Multivariate analysis was restricted to nurse and nurse's aide data (n=536). ResultsDoctors and residents reported fewer sleep difficulties but were more likely to report a tired current state. Female gender was associated with higher stress levels and greater fatigue for all outcomes, while greater social support of supervisor or colleagues decreased stress and fatigue. At the organizational level, longer shifts (12h vs. 8h) were associated with tired current state and greater sleep difficulties. Personnel on rotating shifts had lower stress and a better current state, while those on night shifts had greater sleep and energy level difficulties. ConclusionsEven when controlling for demographic factors, employment and organizational elements remained significantly associated with stress and fatigue outcomes. To improve HCW health it is important to consider simultaneously factors at the individual and organizational level.