Precarious Employment Research Articles

Precarious Employment and Bonded Labor: Assessment from Agriculture Sector of Punjab (Pakistan)

Despite strict constitutional provisions and laws existing against bonded labor, the situation is still plagued by this contemporary form of slavery in Pakistan—the trends of bonded labor historically associated with numerous sectors where laborers have to bear precarious employment circumstances. The International Labor Organization estimates that more than 9.5 individuals are forced to engage in bonded labor due to debt bondage, meager employment opportunities, and the absence of adequate implementation of policies in the South Asian region. The prevalence of bounded labor is the product of unawareness, poverty, unavailability of basic human needs, social exclusion, and, above all, the failure of governments to eliminate the practices. This primary study covers three administrative divisions of Punjab, and data was collected through multistage simple random sampling techniques. The interview schedule was used as a tool of data collection and study findings revealed that a considerable proportion of agriculture laborers worked in bounded circumstances. In contrast, the government's writ regarding implementing bounded labor laws is very poor. Due to this unattended situation, agricultural laborers have to face a large number of issues that become significant reasons for morbidity and mortality every year, especially among women and children belonging to these bounded laborers.

Transitioning into and out of precarious employment and life satisfaction: Evidence from asymmetric fixed effects models

Previous studies have found that those with precarious jobs report lower levels of life satisfaction than those with non-precarious jobs. However, it is unclear whether transitioning into and out of precarious jobs has differential effects on life satisfaction. This study examines the association between employment status transitions and life satisfaction, as well as gender differences in these associations. Data from the Korean Welfare Panel Study (N = 9,792) from 2006 to 2020 were used in this study. A novel asymmetric fixed effects model was employed to separately estimate the association for transitioning into and out of precarious employment. Gender heterogeneity was estimated by including an interaction term of gender and employment transition. Standard fixed effects estimates showed that precarious employment is negatively associated with life satisfaction (b = −0.048). Asymmetric fixed effects models revealed that transitioning out of precarious employment is associated with increased life satisfaction (b = 0.051), while transitioning into a precarious job is not significantly associated with life satisfaction. These asymmetric associations were more pronounced for men than women. This study provides evidence that, especially for men, the association for transitioning out of precarious employment is significantly larger than the association for transitioning into precarious employment. Policies that facilitate the transition into stable employment are likely to enhance the quality of life for employed individuals.

Understanding the paradox of high job quality evaluations among platform workers

This article examines why food delivery platform workers evaluate their job quality as high despite known drawbacks of this type of employment. Using qualitative data obtained from 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with couriers in Slovenia, the study employs a job quality model consisting of four distinct components (psychological well-being, social satisfaction, economic stability, and health and safety) as a conceptual framework used to determine which elements contribute most to the general job quality evaluation. Findings show that couriers often acknowledge the financial challenges and potential health and safety risks associated with their occupation but are willing to overlook some of these drawbacks due to how highly they value the autonomy, freedom and favourable work-life balance platforms offer. This article argues that platform companies, characterised as permissive entities which still hold a significant amount of power over the labour process, take advantage of the workers’ desire for autonomy and the large worker turnover to continue precarious employment practices. This is additionally fuelled by poor management practices and interpersonal relationships in traditional employment, which often push workers into platform work with no human supervisor, where they can “be their own boss”.

Okada Toshiki and Japanese Theatre – Peter ECKERSALL, Barbara GEILHORN, Andreas REGELSBERGER & Cody POULTON (eds)

Since emerging on the scene in the 1990s, influenced especially by the work of Hirata Oriza, playwright Okada Toshiki has written dozens of works, a selection of which have toured throughout the world. Okada Toshiki & Japanese Theatre tells the reader that “he is the only Japanese theatre artist of his generation to have a significant international career and his work is known widely in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia” (1). Okada’s work encompasses colloquial yet troubled language, slowed tempos coupled with abstract physical scores, rich visual and aural designs and collaborations, and close engagement with events such as the Iraq War, precarious employment, the 2011 disasters, and post-Anthropocene modes of dramatic exploration. The book [...]

Payment for Non-Standard Forms of Labor and their Impact on the Economy and Social Status of Employees

Today, in the context of the formation of a new historical phase of social development of civilization - post-industrial society - there is a de-standardization of employment, i.e. the spread of flexible and variable forms of employment, which are called non-standard. It is the modification of traditional and the emergence of completely new forms of employment that actively influence the main parameters of the labor market (demand, supply, labor price, etc.). Therefore, today, personnel leasing, outsourcing, outstaffing, remote employment, non-standard working hours, etc. can be considered fundamental innovations in the field of employment. The following methods were used during the study: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, dialectical approach, analytical thinking, abstraction, and generalization. The purpose of the study is to define the essence of precarious forms of labor, their impact on the economy and social protection of the employee, advantages, and disadvantages. Also, to investigate problematic theoretical and practical issues related to the right to remuneration in Ukraine in the context of precarious employment, in particular, to summarize the main directions of reforming legal regulation in this area. 

Hustle: Experiences of making work ‘work’ for non-standard and precariously employed workers in New York City

Non-standard employment (NSE) has negative implications for workers' health. As part of a larger comparative case study, this article explores US-based workers' experiences in NSE and its influences on their health and well-being in a context of a shrinking social safety net and individualistic cultural values. We conducted interviews with workers in NSE in various occupations in the New York City area (N = 40). We used deductive and inductive thematic analysis and considered variations across levels of employment precarity. All participants experienced the ‘hustle of NSE,’ a dynamic frame comprising: i) tension between payoffs (flexibility, opportunity to work for more pay, and satisfaction with their work) and tradeoffs (job instability and insecurity, and having to work more) that both implicate participants' health and well-being in mostly negative ways; ii) reliance on personal and family resources and opportunities to manage NSE; and iii) low expectations for improvements in employer-based practices and policies or basic worker and social protections despite having clarity about problems and desires. Workers assessed their work and life circumstances and behaved in a way to try to obtain the best results for themselves and their families. When comparing across employment precarity levels, workers' health and well-being experiences varied by participants' immigration status. Understanding health and well-being consequences of NSE contributes to examining individual costs of labor market flexibility. Achieving health equity must include labor, employment and welfare state policies that are more inclusive of gaps created by NSE and precarious employment, especially for workers in marginalized social locations.

Thriving at the Crossroads: Navigating Work and Wellness in the Modern Workforce

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the significant impact of work on an individual's physical and mental health. Factors such as job insecurity, long working hours, and increased use of technology have contributed to the changing landscape of work-related health issues. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges, highlighting the importance of health and safety in the workplace. Employers are increasingly focusing on employee well-being, implementing wellness programs, flexible work arrangements, and mental health support. Remote work, accelerated by the pandemic, has reshaped the traditional office environment, raising questions about work-life balance and the potential long-term effects on health. At the same time, disparities in access to healthcare and the social determinants of health continue to influence the health outcomes of workers. Vulnerable populations, including low-income and gig economy workers, face unique challenges in maintaining their health while navigating precarious employment situations. This abstract underscores the need for ongoing research and policy efforts to better understand and address the intricate relationship between work and health in today's labour markets.

Journalists’ Perceptions of Precarity: Toward a Theoretical Model

ABSTRACT Journalistic work has become increasingly precarious. Labor conditions in the profession meet several criteria of precarity, as established in the sociology of work. Journalists, especially freelancers, often have low and unstable incomes and only limited access to social insurance. Thus far, precarity research in journalism has primarily focused on empirical investigations of precarious employment rather than on theorizing how journalists actually perceive these working conditions. This paper proposes a theoretical model that determines the factors of security and insecurity that can lead to a stronger or weaker perception of precarity. Drawing on a review of the precarity literature, the model allows for subjectivity within the precarious experience of journalists. It shows that family responsibilities and personality traits belong to the subjective factors influencing journalists’ perceptions of precarity. In addition, perceptions of insecure employment conditions depend on the life stage of the worker. We strongly recommend a multidimensional approach that captures not only the objective conditions of work but also journalists’ subjective sense of precarity.

Working conditions of the kinesiologists working in the Atacama region in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The social-health crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of attending to the working conditions of health personnel in order to provide for risks at work. Kinesiologists had a frontline role during the pandemic which led to the modification of their activities and at the same time increased hiring of these professionals in health care services. Objective: To understand the working conditions of kinesiologists working in the Atacama region, in northern Chile, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: The qualitative study is based on the naturalistic paradigm, the tendency used is the grounded theory with a systematic design of Strauss and Corbin J. With two levels of open and axial analysis. Twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out with kinesiologists, ten women and ten men. Results: The analysis allowed establishing eight predominant categories: poor working conditions, poor employment conditions, attitudes and feelings, professionalism, facilitators of working conditions, relevance of the professional role, good employment conditions and lack of knowledge of concepts of employment and working conditions. Conclusion: The working conditions of kinesiologists are deficient, the informal contractual situation stands out and without access to social security, constituting an element of precarious employment and exposure to psychosocial risks as predominant elements of working conditions that are important to address to ensure the safety and quality of care services through the professionals who provide care

Italian academic system disregards scientific merit in faculty hiring processes

Professorships in Italy are assigned following public competitions. However, favouritism affects faculty hiring. Researchers lacking clientelistic support remain excluded from academia and are obliged to seek employment abroad or at non-university institutions, or to abandon their career. Do non-recruited researchers have better or worse scientific capacity than those who have attained professorships in Italy?Files regarding the competitions in bibliometric disciplines won by 186 professors in Florence were analysed. An equal number of professors recruited at other Italian universities and scientists who never attained professorship in Italy were randomly drawn from the pool of individuals having national scientific qualification (the prerequisite for professorship) in the same disciplines as each Florentine professor. H-indexes of the year of qualification (T1), of the Florence call (T2), and in July 2021 (T3) were obtained from Scopus.Non-recruited individuals were more likely (Chi-square test) to show a higher H-index than both Florentine (T1 p = 0.0005, T2 p = 0.0015, T3 p = 0.0095) and non-Florentine professors (T1 p = 0.0078, T2 p = 0.0245, T3 p = 0.0500). Fifty-four non-recruited scientists serve in foreign universities, 100 at national/international research centres. The remaining scientists (25 who continue producing despite precarious employment, and seven who have stopped publishing) were as likely as Florentine (T3 p = 0.69) and non-Florentine (T3 p = 0.14) professors to show a higher H-index.Italian faculty hiring disregards merit. A more challenging qualification would limit the access of researchers with lower scientific capacity, and favour those with greater proficiency. As it stands, competition is useless. Once professors obtain permanent employment, they seem less motivated to publish.

Scientists' Views on the Ethics, Promises and Practices of Synthetic Biology: A Qualitative Study of Australian Scientific Practice.

Synthetic biology is a broad term covering multiple scientific methodologies, technologies, and practices. Pairing biology with engineering, synbio seeks to design and build biological systems, either through improving living cells by adding in new functions, or creating new structures by combining natural and synthetic components. As with all new technologies, synthetic biology raises a number of ethical considerations. In order to understand what these issues might be, and how they relate to those covered in ethics literature on synbio, we conducted an interview study with practicing synthetic biologists affiliated with a synthetic biology centre in Australia. Scientists identified a range of ethical challenges germane to the field, including precarious employment, pressures from industry, gender inequity, and the negative effects of the hyping of synbio. These challenges differed markedly from those identified in the ethics literature, whose treatment of the harms and benefits of synbio remains largely speculative and abstract. In our discussion of the pragmatic, every day ethical issues synthetic biologists face, we illustrate how issues of waste or research integrity play pivotal roles in everything from lived experiences in the laboratory, to long-term research trajectories guiding the field. In a confirmation of the ethical relevance of our participant's views on the field, we argue that the subjects they raise must be included in any ethical analysis of synbio as a field.

Psychosocial exposome and double precarity as emergent concepts for an old story

Psychosocial exposome is presented as a novel integrative concept, stressing out the relevance of individual unique physical and psychological caracteristics and how these interact with a multitude of global (e.g., pandemics, climate change, war, etc.) and proximal (e.g., family, individuals' health conditions, socio-economic status, etc.) challenges, at different moments of the life cycle. Double precarity (precarious housing and employment) is highlighted as a highly relevant marker of psychosocial exposome due to its close relationship with decision making and mental health. Despite not being a new phenomenon, double precarity has been recently recognized also as a main health-related determinant, especially when considering the Portuguese (and international) economical crises, associated with global threats. Evidence-based science addressing individual and plublic health is crucial for mitigating the negative effects of enduring scenarios of double precarity as a relevant component of the psychosocial exposome.

Sustainable and Precarious Employment in the Russian Federation

The subject of the present study is the relationship between sustainable and precarious employment and their scale in the Russian economy. The topic of the article is “Sustainable and precarious employment in the Russian Federation”. The aim of the study is to consider the characteristics of sustainable and precarious employment through the prism of the extended and traditional concepts of the labour force and to determine their scale in the whole of the Russian Federation and in individual sectors of employment on the basis of objective indicators of precarious employment substantiated and verified by the authors. The research methodology is based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis and synthesis of the characteristics of sustainable and precarious employment, including consideration of the extended and traditional concepts of the labour force, the classification of modern employment, as well as the verification of its indicators and their variable application. The scope of the research results is to develop consensus methodological approaches to the study of sustainable and precarious employment, as well as their regulation by government authorities. The authors concluded that precarious employment in the Russian Federation is widespread, which reduces the quality of employment and requires legislative and practical restrictions.

Ramifications of Precarious Employment for Health and Health Inequity: Emerging Trends from the Americas.

Precarious employment (PE), which encompasses the power relations between workers and employers, is a well-established social determinant of health that has strong ramifications for health and health inequity. In this review, we discuss advances in the measurement of this multidimensional construct and provide recommendations for overcoming continued measurement challenges. We then evaluate recent evidence of the negative health impacts of PE, with a focus on the burgeoning studies from North America and South America. We also establish the role of PE in maintaining and perpetuating health inequities and review potential policy solutions to help alleviate its health burden. Last, we discuss future research directions with a call for a better understanding of the heterogeneity within PE and for research that focuses both on upstream drivers that shape PE and its impacts on health, as well as on the mechanisms by which PE causes poor health.

Unveiling Precarious Employment: From the Reserve Army to Techno-Feudalism.

Unveiling Precarious Employment: From the Reserve Army to Techno-Feudalism.

Multidimensional typologies of precarious employment and their relationships with mental well-being in Korean wageworkers: A latent class analysis based on the Korean Working Conditions Survey (2020–2021)

BackgroundPrecarious employment (PE) has been conceptualized as having a multidimensional nature, and research addressing this topic in Asian countries is scarce. This study examined the typologies of PE and their relationships with mental health among Korean workers. MethodsFrom October 2020 to April 2021, the Korean Working Conditions Survey was conducted on Korean wageworkers (weighted N = 38,347), representative of the nation. With theory-based operationalization of PE, we identified typologies and classified workers through latent class analysis. Logistic regression was performed to explore the association between PE typologies and mental health among workers, represented as odds ratio (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs). ResultsFour distinct employment typologies emerged: (i) standard employment relationships (SER, 34.5%), (ii) moderate employment precariousness (MEP, 43.5%), (iii) underemployment (17.9%), and (iv) daily laborers (4.1%). Women were overrepresented in the MEP and underemployment types, while the SER type consisted of those with higher educational attainment and white-collar jobs. The OR (95% CI) of depression was 1.38 (1.27–1.50) for the MEP type, 1.48 (1.32–1.66) for the underemployment type, and 2.15 (1.85–2.51) for the daily laborers, compared to the SER type. For individual elements of PE, temporary employment, low wages, low-income predictability, and low involvement in work process were positively associated with depression, whereas part-time employment was negatively associated with depression. ConclusionEmployment insecurity, low material rewards, and a lack of rights and protection can contribute to the poor mental health of workers. Policy interventions are warranted to mitigate inequalities in employment quality among Korean workers.

Sleep mediates the relationship between precarious employment and mental health

BackgroundCurrent evidence suggests that precarious employment is a risk factor for poor mental health. Although the mechanisms underpinning this relationship are unclear, poor sleep has been proposed to have a role in this relationship. This study explored the mediating effects of poor sleep quality and duration on the relationship between precarious employment and mental health. MethodsData were obtained from wave 17 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. A novel precarious employment score (PES) was developed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) in 8127 workers (4195 female, aged 18–65). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to evaluate the mediating effect of sleep quality and duration on the relationship between precarious employment and mental health (SF-36 mental health subscale). ResultsThe PES identified 650 workers with a high level of precariousness, 2417 with a moderate level of precariousness, and 5060 workers with a low level of precariousness out of 8127 in total. There was a significant direct association between precarious employment and mental health; with higher precarity increasing the likelihood of poor mental health. The SEM results revealed that sleep quality partially mediated the association between precarious employment and mental health (Coefficient = 0.025, 95 % CI [0.015, 0.034], P ≤ 0.001). However, a mediation effect was not found for sleep duration. ConclusionEncouraging precarious employees to improve sleep quality may mitigate the adverse effects of precarious work on their mental health. Further objective measurement of sleep duration warrants a more accurate insight into this mediating effect in this group.

A Gendered Analysis of Poverty among the Employed in South Africa

Poverty is an obstinate issue in South Africa, with many employed individuals still living in poverty. The gender pay gap and employment in low-income jobs are some of the contributing factors to poverty, particularly for women who, on average, earn 30 percent less than men. Women are also more likely to be employed in low-income jobs in the care economy, which offers few benefits, such as domestic work or part-time work. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to be employed in higher-paying jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields. This study seeks to analyse poverty among employed men and women in South Africa using data from the General Household Survey by Statistics South Africa. The results of the regression analysis indicate that women of colour, particularly those with low levels of education and are potentially in precarious employment, are more likely to be poor compared to men. Policies advocating for gender equality in the workforce need to be reinforced while empowering women and men through education and training.

The gendered associations between precarious employment and mental health in working-age Australians: A longitudinal analysis using 16 waves of the HILDA survey

Unemployment and precarious employment (PE) are routinely found to be associated with poorer mental health. Importantly, women are over-represented in PE (due to disproportionate unpaid care demands), yet a gender lens has been lacking in much of the extant literature. This study addresses several gaps by reconsidering how PE can be conceptualised from a gender perspective and examining the impact of differing levels of multidimensional PE on the mental health of working-age Australians. Utilising sixteen annual waves (2005–2020) of the HILDA survey, this longitudinal study employed mixed-effects analysis and Mundlak modelling to examine the association between PE and mental health in working-age (25–64yrs) adults. Mental health was assessed using the MHI-5 scale. A multidimensional PE scale (based on objective and subjective indicators) was developed and three levels of precarity were modelled. 19,442 participants were included in the analyses and all models were stratified by gender. We found women experience greater exposure to PE in Australia, and our results showed a ubiquitously strong and negative association between PE and mental health in both women and men, across all levels of PE, with a dose dependent association observed with increasing PE. Additional adjustment for prior mental health slightly attenuated effect sizes, but the strength and direction of all associations were unchanged. This study provides longitudinal evidence of the detrimental impact of PE on the mental health of working age Australians, highlighting the importance of labour regulations and employment policies to minimize PE for all adults. However, given women's differential exposure to PE, this study also reinforces the urgent need for gender-sensitive social policies to address continued inequity in the division of unpaid household labour to promote a more equitable paid labour market into the future.

Gaps in benefits, awareness, and comprehension that leave those with long COVID vulnerable.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many suffering from long COVID, an episodic and debilitating chronic condition affecting people's ability to work and manage medical expenses. Though the Biden Administration has committed to conducting research and building support programs to alleviate the strain on those affected, in practice, static eligibility criteria for unemployment and disability benefits, patchy insurance coverage, and insufficient paid leave programs have left many people vulnerable. Given the magnitude of long COVID and the dearth to date of large-scale studies about its financial consequences, a focused qualitative analysis of lived experiences is warranted to understand and highlight gaps in the policy landscape. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews from 2020 to 2022 with 25 people with experience of long COVID living predominately in the Midwest. Our inductive analysis revealed ways people became financially exhausted by uncertain medical care costs and precarious employment that left them trying, often alone, to access benefits. People described both experiences with workplace benefits and attempts to access federal benefits to address unstable employment situations created by protracted and uncertain functional impairments. We explore pre- and post-pandemic era unemployment, disability, and insurance policies and offer recommendations for better supporting people with long COVID.