Precarious Employment Research Articles

Humanized algorithms matter! From enabling social exchange factors to building affective trust mechanism for facilitating gig workers’ task performance

PurposeDigital platform work monitored by algorithms is increasingly supplementing or substituting standard employment. Though gig workers are faced with the vulnerable, fragile and precarious digital platform work environment, the reason why gig workers remain highly willing to show good task performance has been so far unexamined. Building upon the reciprocity of the social exchange theory, this study aims to explore the antecedents and boundary condition of facilitating gig workers’ task performance.Design/methodology/approachFirst, to minimize common method variance, decline spurious mood effects and ensure data robustness, we conducted a two-wave time-lagged survey and collected 269 survey responses from gig workers on different gig platforms in China (e.g. Meituan, Eleme, Didi, Credamo, Zaihang) at two time nodes. Second, abiding by two stage procedures of the PLS-SEM (partial least square structural equation model) approach, we analyzed a moderated mediation model in the digital platform work context.FindingsResults present that both platform work remuneration and flexibility help gig platforms develop an affective trust relationship with gig workers, thus encouraging them to repay the platform by performing platform tasks well. Algorithmic monitoring shows a “double-edged sword” moderating role since it weakens the indirectly positive relationship between platform work remuneration and task performance via affective trust but enhances the indirectly positive relationship between platform work flexibility and task performance via affective trust.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the importance of remuneration and flexibility in developing affective trust can help platforms design effective human resource management (HRM) strategies that enhance worker motivation of maintaining high engagement and performance under precarious working conditions. Additionally, optimizing the “double-edged sword” moderating role of algorithmic monitoring makes it more humanized, enhancing the efficiency with these HRM strategies and making both workers and platforms beneficial.Originality/valueThese findings offer an affective trust-based explanation for the mechanism of maintaining high work performance motivation in the nonstandard and precarious employment from the social exchange perspective, while understanding the (de)humanized aspect of algorithmic monitoring by revealing its “double-edged sword” moderating role.

A Qualitative Analysis of Immigrant Latinx Housecleaners' Experiences of How Power Relations With "Employers" Influence Working Conditions in New York City: The Safe and Just Cleaners Study.

Housecleaning work has been characterized as precarious employment with unstable work hours, arbitrary and low pay and benefits, and exposures to chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors. Understanding how interpersonal power dynamics between workers and clients, a component of precarious work, contributes to work exposures can inform and improve prevention programs. We used reflexive thematic analysis of data from seven focus groups with Latinx immigrant housecleaners in New York City to explore workers' experience of interpersonal power dynamics with their clients-whom they referred to as their "employers"-and its influences on working conditions. Employer direction and monitoring varied and mostly reduced workers' autonomy to choose products, sometimes leading workers to complete tasks in more hazardous ways. Housecleaners reported using larger quantities of products, products with stronger scents, and more physical exertion to increase the efficiency of their cleaning, to complete tasks quickly, and to please their clients. Allotted time, tasks, and pay were interconnected, often resulting in negative reports about health and well-being. As immigrants, they also experienced discrimination and intimidation, which compounded their anxiety due to their employment insecurity. Nevertheless, participants learned and navigated high variance in employers' cleaning preferences and attempted to take control over the conduct of their work, when possible, and sometimes expressed self-advocacy. Housecleaners' precarious employment arrangements affect how they navigate interpersonal relationships with employers, which impairs their working conditions and occupational exposures. Improvements in labor and social protections, such as designing supportive policies and training for workers and employers, are needed to improve working conditions.

Claim Suppression of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Among Precariously Employed Immigrant Workers in Ontario.

Employers sometimes hinder the appropriate reporting of claims to workers' compensation, a phenomenon termed claim suppression. While the magnitude of claim suppression is difficult to quantify, various reports have identified it as a significant concern. In response, several Canadian jurisdictions, such as Ontario in 2015, introduced legislation addressing claim suppression. This article first discusses the legislative and policy context that influences claim suppression in Ontario, including concerns concerning the scope, interpretation, and enforcement of the law. It then presents qualitative findings from a community-based study with members of the Toronto Bangladeshi immigrant community that documented varied forms of employer claim suppression in precarious work, as well as facilitators of claim suppression within the workers' compensation and health care systems. Our findings and those of other research suggest that the scope of claim suppression is broader than that contemplated by the legislation. Our article proposes recommendations for the conceptualization of claim suppression and for legislation, policies, practices, and interventions that are grounded in workers' lived experiences.

From Worker Victory to Policy Reform: Injured Migrant Workers Fight for Return to Work Justice in Workers' Compensation in Ontario, Canada.

This article explores the challenges facing injured migrant farm workers in the workers' compensation system in Canada's province of Ontario, with a focus on their fight for return to work justice. Told from the perspective of one of the lawyers who represented the workers, it highlights a recent victory achieved by 4 workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in defending their rights to workers' compensation support. The workers' compensation tribunal decided that the workers' compensation board must evaluate these workers' ability to return to work, access retraining, and receive compensation based on their labor markets in Jamaica-instead of based on fictional job prospects in Ontario. The tribunal also called out the need to consider systemic anti-Black racism in workers' compensation law and policy. The article analyzes how this legal victory could reshape workers' compensation policy in Ontario for injured migrant farm workers. It also discusses the implications of the win for injured workers in other temporary work programs and precarious employment sectors.

Parental precarious employment and the mental health of adolescents: a Swedish registry study.

This study investigates the association between parental precarious employment (PE) and the mental health of their adolescent children, with a particular focus on how the association differs based on whether the mother or father is in PE. This register-based study used the Swedish Work, Illness, and Labor-market Participation (SWIP) cohort. A sample of 117 437 children aged 16 years at baseline (2005) were followed up until 2009 (the year they turned 20). A multidimensional construct of PE (SWE-ROPE 2.0) was used to classify parental employment as either precarious, substandard or standard. The outcome, adolescents' mental disorders, was measured as a diagnosis of a mental disorder using ICD-10 codes or by prescribed psychotropic drugs using ATC codes. Crude and adjusted Cox regression models produced hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) to estimate the association between parental PE and adolescents' mental health. Adolescents with parents in PE exhibited a higher risk of developing mental disorders. The association was more pronounced for paternal PE (HR 1.22, 95% CI 1.10-1.35) compared to maternal PE (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.00-1.21). These associations largely persisted after adjusting for important confounders, including parental mental health. This study addresses a significant gap in the literature on parental PE and adolescents' mental health. As PE is growing more common across countries, this study provides relevant insights into the intergenerational role that parental low-quality employment may have in terms of mental health within families.

Giving the outrage a name – how researchers are challenging employment conditions under the hashtags #IchBinHanna and #IchBinReyhan

ABSTRACT Outraged by the release of a ministerial video in which short-term employment contracts in German academia were lauded through the embodiment of fictitious doctoral researcher Hanna, thousands of researchers rallied behind the hashtags #IchBinHanna & #IchBinReyhan to vent their frustrations about precarious academic employment in Germany. The emerging connective action attracted a comparatively large number of researchers in a short period of time, stayed active for over two years, elicited reactions from policymakers and the media, and influenced current legislative developments in Germany. We analyse the discourse of over 45,000 tweets related to the movement from its onset in June 2021 to March 2023. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines machine-learning, corpus-linguistic, and qualitative analysis methods, we aim to distil the factors that led to the movement’s considerable success. The fast growth of the movement was likely driven by the use of an easy-to-personalise action frame and the large variety of discussion topics, facilitating the involvement of different groups of academics across career levels and employment conditions. Our analysis of the linguistic characteristics of the discourse reveals largely positive, constructive, and active exchanges, in which many of the most salient keywords are lexical verbs. Our analyses offer an explanation for the continued involvement of many activists and the successful translation of solutions developed by the movement to news reports and proposed law amendments, despite an absence of coordination by any formal organisation.

A Systematic Review of Evaluated Labor Market Initiatives Addressing Precarious Employment: Findings and Public Health Implications.

Precarious employment (PE) is a major determinant of population health and contributor to health and social inequities. The purpose of this article is to synthesize and critically appraise available evidence on labor market initiatives addressing PE identified through a systematic review. Of the 21 initiatives reviewed, grouped into four categories-labor market policies, legislation, and reforms; union strategies; apprenticeships and other youth programs; social protection programs-10 showed consistently positive outcomes and 11 a combination of negative, mixed, or inconclusive outcomes. In addition to reviewing the key findings, we discuss public health implications and recommendations related to PE and the implementation and evaluation of initiatives. Given the wide diversity of initiatives, implementation approaches, evaluation methods, and socioeconomic and historical contexts characterizing the labor markets of the countries studied, we refrain from making recommendations regarding the most effective initiatives to address PE. Instead, we discuss several implications concerning the four types of initiatives to further support those searching for solutions to address PE. We strongly recommend tailoring adopted initiatives to local contexts to match a country's specific PE problems and unique labor market and socioeconomic context.

Could Better-Quality Employment Improve Population Health? Findings From a Scoping Review of Multi-Dimensional Employment Quality Research and a Proposed Research Direction.

Precarious employment, a specific part of the conceptual spectrum of employment quality (EQ), has been established as an important risk to individual and population health and well-being when compared to a standard employment circumstance. There remains a need, however, to explore whether and how EQ might be used as a tool to not only protect but also advance population health and well-being. The purposes of this scoping review were to assess the analytic treatment of the multiple dimensions of EQ and the stances researchers take to characterize the state of knowledge of EQ that supports the idea that better EQ is a health-promoting factor. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods primary studies that included at least three of the seven conceptually-informed EQ dimensions were eligible. Studies were assessed for EQ dimensions represented, how dimensions were treated analytically, the pathogenic, ambivalent, or salutogenic stances used by investigators, and what each might tell us about how to leverage aspects of better-quality employment to improve population health. A total of 78 studies were included; 54 of these treated EQ dimensions in an interrelated way. Of the analytically interrelated studies, none had an explicit salutogenic stance. Some evidence suggests that a handful of EQ types might present an equal or reduced risk of poor health than the standard employment relationship, frequently used as a historic gold standard. Research with a salutogenic stance might build our understanding of whether and how employment could be used to advance our collective well-being.

Challenges and Resiliency: Social Determinants of Health, COVID-19, and the Disproportionate Impact on Immigrants and Refugees Living with HIV.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic is a global public health and social justice issue. HIV continues to disproportionately affect marginalized populations, including immigrants and refugees living with HIV (IRLHIV). This study investigated and captured the experiences of IRLHIV using the social determinants of health framework. This study examined the intersecting factors affecting the health and well-being of IRLHIV in Alberta, Canada, prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrent mixed methods were used. Employing an online survey (n = 124) and photovoice methodology (n = 13), the researchers identified five salient themes: experiences of racism and discrimination, challenges accessing nutrition, healthcare, and affordable housing, and precarious employment situations. The findings underscored the amplification of pre-existing inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic, intensifying the discrimination and stigma faced by IRLHIV due to both their health status and immigration background. These findings highlight the urgent need for targeted, evidence-based interventions to address the social determinants of health that adversely affect IRLHIV. The researchers recommend further participatory research action into health disparities for IRLHIV to create responsive and culturally safe services for IRLHIV.

Transformation of the subject field of Russian sociology of labor: from a system of labor relations to the constructivist perspective

The article is devoted to the processes of transformation of the content and boundaries of the subject field of Russian sociology of labor, which occurred from the late 1980s to the present. To achieve this goal, the tasks are solved, consisting in the analysis of scientific and educational literature on the subject of labor sociology; the description of the main methodological approaches to the study of labor relations; the construction of the content of the subject field of labor sociology from the standpoint of the latest concepts of the sociology of life and the existing experience of the Samara School of Sociology of Labor. It is emphasized that in Russian literature there are at least six approaches to the consideration of the subject of sociology of labor, which are mainly based on the systemic approach that prevailed back in Soviet times. In terms of content, one or another aspect of social interaction in the field of work is most often declared the subject of labor sociology: 1) the attitude of society to work (work as a social phenomenon), 2) relations between participants in the labor process (labor relations), 3) the attitude of participants in the labor process to their work. The methodical and methodological difficulties of analyzing labor relations are associated with the existence of many overlapping and contradictory approaches within the directions of sociological realism, nominalism and constructivism, which interpret both their content and the factors influencing them in different ways. The most promising direction of modern analysis of labor relations is the application of the constructivist concept of the sociology of life, in which labor relations can be considered as a synthesizing (unifying) concept in relation to the key components of the employee's life world (labor consciousness, labor behavior and the work environment), which in turn consist of a number of elementary concepts (labor motivation, social well-being, social tension, involvement in labor activity) in the space of the social and labor sphere of society (a structure-forming concept). Based on the experience of empirical research accumulated during the post-Soviet period and using new theoretical foundations, the main directions of modern research in the subject field of Russian sociology of labor are: 1) study of the behavior and life world of subjects of labor relations in conditions of precarious employment, 2) analysis of the content and composition of participants (subjects) of labor relations, 3) problems of inequality and social justice in conditions of everyday labor interactions.

ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM OF PRECARIZATION OF EMPLOYMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN: GOVERNMENTAL INITIATIVES AGAINST JOB INSECURITY

Precarization of employment refers to the growing trend of insecure, unstable jobs that offer limited protections and benefits to workers. In Kazakhstan, this issue has become increasingly critical due to economic transitions and global labor market changes. The shift from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one has led to the proliferation of informal and non-standard forms of employment, leaving many workers vulnerable. This article delves into the Kazakhstani government's multifaceted approach to addressing employment precarization through a series of comprehensive legislative reforms, significant social security enhancements, and robust support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Key initiatives include implementing stricter regulations on temporary and part-time contracts, ensuring stronger enforcement of labor laws, and expanding social security coverage to provide a more secure safety net for all workers. Additionally, the government's efforts to support SMEs through financial assistance, business development services, and regulatory simplifications are aimed at fostering economic stability and creating more secure job opportunities. By thoroughly examining existing research and analyzing these government strategies, the article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the measures taken and their effectiveness in mitigating the adverse effects of precarious employment, ultimately contributing to a more secure and equitable labor market in Kazakhstan.

Development and Class Struggle: The Political Economy of Labour Precarity in South African Forestry

In this paper, we draw on a Marxist framework to discuss the significance of labour precarity for contemporary South African capitalism. We argue that the rise in precarious employment constitutes a deliberate strategy by capitalists to weaken the bargaining power of workers and re-assert their control over production through economic coercion. The paper focuses on forestry workers, who have experienced major restructuring characterised by chain subcontracting where pseudo-entrepreneurs employ precarious workers squeezed by a task-based payment system. We explore the failure of unions to resist the rise of precarity but disagree with authors who dismiss the working class as a horizon for progressive transformation. Hoping for benevolent top-down intervention to mitigate precarity ignores the uneven, dialectical character of capitalist development, whose engine remains class struggle. The weakness of labour’s resistance to capitalist strategies not only undermines workers, but the progressive character of capitalism itself.

Poor Employment Conditions and Immigrant Health in Europe

Building on the extant literature and utilizing data from the EU-SILC and the EU-LFS surveys conducted between 2009 and 2023, we empirically investigate the impact of poor employment conditions—associated with insecure or precarious employment—on third-country nationals’ (TCNs’) self-perceived health status (SPH). The role of employment conditions in health is examined by employing indicators of temporary, part-time, and self-employment. Driven by theory and empirical analysis, we also investigate the effects of additional variables, including long-term unemployment. Finally, to probe differences across countries, we examine how the effects of employment conditions on TCNs’ health vary across institutional settings, namely across different types of welfare state. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses of panel data reveal that employment conditions affect immigrants’ SPH and surface significant differences across countries. The estimated country-specific effects point to statistical average differences between Germany and two groups of countries: one showing higher effects (i.e., Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and France) and another with lower effects (i.e., Greece, Ireland, Italy, and Spain). The welfare model adopted by different countries is a qualitative significant predictor of TCNs’ SPH. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for future research, but also policy initiatives to improve TCNs’ employment conditions and, consequently, their health and overall well-being.

Precarious employment, strenuous working conditions and the long-term risk of diagnosed chronic musculoskeletal disorders

ObjectivesTo investigate the effect of precarious employment (PE) on the risk of diagnosed chronic musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among Swedish workers in occupations with strenuous working conditions.MethodsThis nationwide register-based cohort study...

How Could It Be Better? Seeking Solutions to the Precarization in the Tourism Workforce

In the tourism industry, businesses have introduced part-time, temporary, and seasonal work arrangements to increase their short-term profits and save on human resources, which are the most significant cost factor. This has led to the formation of a precarious working class in tourism. The question of how to struggle with this emerging problem of precariousness remains unanswered. Strategies to fight against precarious work have become a central focus for academics working in labor and employment and labor organizations. This study aims to reveal the problem of precariousness in the tourism industry and its consequences and offer suggestions. Although there are many studies on the issue of precariousness, there is a noticeable lack of studies focusing on solving these problems in the tourism field. This study addresses this gap by presenting proposed solutions. In the study, a narrative literature review was conducted and a Google Scholar database was used. The concepts of “precarious work”, “precarious employment”, “precarious life”, “precarization”, and “precariousness” were searched and then the concepts of “tourism”, “hospitality”, and “service” were searched together. The study has two main results: (1) The forms of precarious work in the tourism industry and the consequences it creates, and (2) solution proposals to eliminate precarious and adverse working conditions. In this respect, the study aims to contribute to the literature and protect tourism workers' rights.

Fisuras en la cotidianidad. Sobre La encomienda de Margarita García Robayo y Flores en la basura de Violeta Serrano

The cross-interpretation of two texts: a novel by Margarita García Robayo, The Delivery (2022), and an essay by Violeta Serrano, “Flowers in the Dustbin” (2022) focuses on four main issues: the intention that reveals itself in the genre, the considerations on everyday life in regard to the family baggage that one carries and has to deal with in order to redefine their own identity, the migrant’s status and its relation to the quotidian dimension of being, and, lastly, the employment precariousness and financial difficulties common in the lives of the millennials. The article also outlines the significance of Argentina as setting in both texts. The methodological frame is constituted by the metatextual ponderings by García Robayo, the notion of Everyday according to Alfred Schutz, Maurice Blanchot and Roland Barthes, as well as a concept of degrowth by Serge Latouche.

Does Structural Empowerment of Nurse Leaders Moderate the Relationship Between Destructive Leadership and Nursing Outcomes?-A Cross-Sectional Study.

To describe how nursing staff assess their superiors' destructive leadership and nurse leaders' structural empowerment. A further aim is to examine the associations between destructive leadership and staff outcomes and how nurse leaders' structural empowerment moderates these associations. A cross-sectional study. The data were collected during November 2022-April 2023. Nursing staff assessed their work well-being, commitment, decision-making and career advancement. Destructive leadership was evaluated using the Employment Precariousness Scale and some additional questions. Nurse leaders' structural empowerment was assessed using the Conditions For Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II. The data were analysed using statistical methods including linear regression. Nursing staff (n = 381) assessed destructive leadership as rare, but it negatively associated with their commitment, decision-making, career advancement and work well-being. Nurse leaders' (n = 97) structural empowerment had a positive association with nursing staff outcomes. The interaction between destructive leadership and nurse leaders' structural empowerment positively affected the work well-being and commitment of nursing staff. The models explained 32% of nurses' work well-being and 19% of their commitment. Destructive leadership undermines nursing staff outcomes. Structural empowerment of nurse leaders should be enhanced to protect against destructive leadership and other protective factors should be explored in the future to identify and prevent destructive leadership. Organisations should provide nurse leaders with appropriate resources and support to enhance their empowerment and opportunities to improve their leadership skills and expertise and should develop ways of identifying destructive leadership patterns and policies to resolve situations in which destructive leadership occurs. A work environment that empowers nurse leaders may reduce the effect of destructive leadership on staff well-being, commitment, decision-making and career advancement. The significance of protective factors against destructive leadership should be explored using more robust methods in future research. A STROBE checklist. None.

How precarious are European workers? An expert-system approach with evidence from the European Social Survey

ABSTRACT A major current discussion in labour sociology is the conceptualisation of precarity and the establishment of key indicators for its measurement. In many countries, a significant and frequently increasing part of employment is characterised as insecure, atypical, non-standard, or precarious. To offer new insights into the quantification of precarious employment, this paper proposes a novel approach for assessing precarity, building on the latest literature. It expands on an initial expert system developed in 2022 for Greece, constructing a more advanced knowledge system that quantifies precarity across several European countries. A rule set is created to identify which socio-demographic traits and their combinations predict precarity. These traits relate to three domains: job insecurity, insufficient resources, and unsupportive entitlements. Raw data drawn from the ninth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) provides a comprehensive view of experiences rendering workers precarious and enables comparisons of precarity among European countries. Additionally, data from the ESS’s ad hoc module ‘Timing of life, fairness and justice’ is used to form a subjective precarity score for employed individuals. Results are illustrated separately for four countries relating different types of labour market regimes, Germany, Finland, Italy and Lithuania and comparisons are made to reveal discrepancies between countries.

A longitudinal analysis of the impact of multidimensional precarious employment on the mental health of men and women.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of precarious employment (PE) on the mental health of Australians. Building on previous research, we conceptualised PE as a multidimensional construct, accounted for gender differences in the associations, and our modelling strategy addressed the possibility of reverse causality bias. Data was pooled panel data from 15 waves (2005-2019) of the HILDA survey (n = 14,237). Using PCA, we created two multidimensional measures of PE: objective and subjective. Fixed effects (FE) regression models (attending to unmeasured time-invariant confounders) estimated the change in mental health associated with a change in PE, and instrumental variable (IV) analyses (addressing endogeneity bias) obtained an unbiased estimate of effect of subjective PE on mental health (with ordinary least squares (OLS) models as baseline). For both genders, FE models showed that objective and subjective multidimensional PE both had a strong negative association with mental health (stronger for subjective PE). IV analysis indicated OLS models overestimate the relationship between subjective PE and mental health for men but underestimate it for women, providing causal evidence that subjective PE is important for women's mental health. Overall, findings suggest that targeted PE policies have the potential to provide significant population mental health gains, particularly for working women.

Trade unions in the age of digital technologies: new challenges for the freedom of association

This article explores the impact of digital technologies on the activities of trade unions and their ability to uphold workers’ rights. Special attention is given to the challenges for the freedom of association in the context of labor market changes and digital transformation. Based on the analysis of current trends, the article discusses how digital tools can both enhance and limit trade union activity. Recommendations for the development of trade unions in the digital age are also provided. From the perspective of protecting workers’ rights, the article examines certain digital tools as opportunities for trade unions to modernize their operations, particularly through online communication and mobilization of workers. It also analyzes the challenges to freedom of association in the digital age, including the rise of unstable forms of employment and the impact of algorithmic management. Examples of trade union adaptation are presented, along with recommendations aimed at strengthening their role to ensure resilience and activity in the face of the digital transformation of the labor market, in accordance with proposals from the International Labour Organization. In the contemporary environment, the protection of workers’ rights has become complicated, as most non-standard and innovative forms of employment typically lack a direct dependency of the worker on the employer. The most complex employment situations arise in the context of the development of the Internet and mobile communication devices, where it is not always clear whether labor relations exist, and it is even more challenging to determine whether protections designed for standard labor relations should apply to individuals engaged in such forms of employment. These circumstances highlight the need for the implementation of appropriate mechanisms that would extend collective bargaining regulation to workers with non­standard (precarious) employment, particularly those working on online platforms. One possible guarantee for the realization of such rights may be the inclusion of these workers among social partners by granting them the independent right to collective bargaining and/or representation in the labor market through sectoral trade unions.