Entire Labor Research Articles

Pensions and the Capture of Social Reproduction

Pensions are the conceptual basis of social welfare. Through contributions from the entire labour force towards the end of each individual’s labour life, the pension system has an underlying effect that binds together the means of social reproduction. Banking on our need for security in future old age, pension funds have captured and supported financialisation of multiple areas for social reproduction. Despite their scale, pensions are failing to secure wellbeing in old age, and elderly poverty has become a political issue exploited by right wing populism in Germany. Looking at the notion of saving for old age as essentially misguided, I argue that a contractual framework of welfare will be fundamentally challenged by the ageing population. Examining the current failings of the PAYGO system, I consider how public provision of care and a capabilities based pension discourse can have much to contribute to economic organisation, the re-design of the pension system and to securing the means of social reproduction.

New treatment for migraines: Use of monoclonal antibodies – Review

Migraine is one of the most prevalent diseases in the population and is also one of the main disabling diseases, having a negative impact on the sufferer's quality of life. Migraine mainly affects people of working age, reducing productivity and impacting the entire labor market. The field of migraine therapies includes monoclonal antibodies that inhibit the Calcitonin Gene Related Peptide (CGRP), which has a strong correlation with the pathophysiology of migraine attacks. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the literature to review the treatment of migraines with the use of monoclonal antibodies, analyzing the prognosis and improvement of patients who have undergone treatment. A systematic review of the literature was carried out between September 2021 and April 2022 by two independent researchers. A total of 1,105 articles were identified, of which 33 met the inclusion criteria and were then analyzed. The use of the monoclonal antibodies Erenumab, Eptinezumab, Fremanezumab and Galcanezumab showed better results in all the parameters analyzed when compared to the placebo groups. They showed a reduction in the average number of migraine days per month, a reduction in the number of days with crises, a reduction in the use of acute medication and an improvement in quality of life assessment scores. In conclusion, monoclonal antibodies are an innovative therapy for migraine and are emerging as preventive options with good tolerability in terms of adverse effects and efficacy. Further research should be carried out with a view to evaluating efficacy and long-term safety, given the recent introduction of this therapy.

Zakres związania pracodawcy wnioskiem o pracę zdalną – uwagi na temat pojęć rodzaju i organizacji pracy w ujęciu systemowym

This article discusses the employee’s right to remote work. The author considers the issue of the scope of binding the employer with the application of employees who are entitled to submit an application for remote work. The aim of the article is to discuss the grounds for refusing an employee’s application and their interpretation from the point of view of the entire labor law system. In the final part of this study, author tries to show sanctions for employer, who refuses employee’s application with infridgment legal regulations.

Long-term assessment of energy consumption reduction in a building ventilation system with passive particulate matter control technology in the fresh air intake

A particulate matter (PM) control device known as aspiration efficiency reducer (AER) has been developed as an attachment to the fresh air intake in building ventilation systems to reduce building energy consumption and improve the fresh air intake’s quality. Ambient particle laden air is drawn into the fresh air inlet of a mechanically ventilated building via the air handling unit (AHU). The ventilation system particle filters become loaded and clogged with PM, increasing the load on the fan’s motor. Three novel AER devices were tested against an AHU inlet rainhood, and their long-term energy performance assessed. Furthermore, an AER attached to an AHU incorporating single-stage filtration (SSF) was compared against an AHU fitted with rainhoods employing two-stage filtration (TSF). The findings showed AER technology resulted in a 6.6–11.4 % reduction in the AHU’s energy consumption. Finally, the impact of the AER with SSF compared to a rainhood with TSF led to a lowering of the system pressure throughout the entire testing period, reduced filter and labour costs resulting in a 36.5 % reduction in the total costs. AER technology and a ventilation filtration system design tailored to the local environment will result in lower building energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

FUNCTION OF LABOR MARKET OF GEORGIA IN THE POST-PANDEMIC PERIOD

andemics, which has spread all over the world, had a great impact on several directions of socio-economic development of our country. It has also significantly influenced on the function of Georgian Labor market. One of the most important problems in functioning of Georgian Labor Market is a disbalance between the working force requirements and supply. The volume of supplied working force on the labor market mainly depends on the quantity of the population, able to work and the directions they change. In the last decades, there have been serious changes in the quantity of the employable population in Georgia, that affected on forming and function of the labor market of our country. In this article we have discussed the impact of demographic and external migration processes developed in Georgia, on forming the volume of supplying the working force. Currently, external migration processes development directions gained special topicality, which is characterized with the negative migration balance of native Georgian population. Moreover, recently birth rate indicator has decreased, that will cause decrease of the quantity of the category of people, who will be capable to perform active labor activities. All the mentioned will itself effect on forming the working force on the labor market of the country and in general function of the entire Labor Market. Keywords: Labor market, migration, migration balance, birth rate, death rate, national growth.

Analysis of Labor Productivity in Bricklaying Operation of Building Construction in Surkhet, Nepal

The development of the nation’s infrastructure depends heavily on the construction industry. The entire labor productivity during the project has a significant impact on construction productivity. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the origins and consequences of labor productivity in the context of the Nepalese construction industry. The methodology involved in conducting the research is the formation of the problem statement, developing research objectives, literature review, data collection, data analysis, conclusion, and recommendations. The data for this research is collected by a literature review as well as a questionnaire and physical observations of building construction. The literature review helped to identify several elements that have an impact on labor productivity. To determine the factors that influenced labor productivity the most, a questionnaire survey was undertaken with a Likert scale. The required information was then produced by processing, analyzing, and interpreting the data using Microsoft Excel and SPSS software tools. The Cronbach’s Alpha value was computed using SPSS to measure the internal consistency and found to be 0.976 which shows the better reliability of the research and data collection. From the study, we can conclude that the results obtained from the relative importance index (RII), mean response analysis (MRA), and sensitivity analysis through Artificial Neural Network (ANN) meets the same conclusion as the highest influencing factor affecting labor productivity is ‘Material related factors’ followed by ‘Leadership related factors’, ‘Manpower related factors’, and the last ‘Other factors’.

Oligarchy, underutilized capacity, and government policy

We examine an oligarchic economy where only elites can establish firms. In monopolistic competition when the size of the elite is sufficiently small, there is an absolute exclusive equilibrium where wages are driven to the reservation wage. Because of the possession of market power by firms, total equilibrium output is insufficient to warrant the employment of the entire labor force, leading to inadequate aggregate demand for labor and underutilized capacity. The economy inefficiently operates inside its production possibilities frontier. Then, the adoption of rather unorthodox left-wing fiscal and labor policies may boost capacity utilization and lead to a Pareto improvement.

Minimum Wage Employment Effects and Labour Market Concentration

Abstract This paper shows that more highly concentrated labour markets experience more positive employment effects of the minimum wage. In the most concentrated labour markets, employment rises following a minimum wage increase. The paper establishes its main findings by studying the effects of local minimum wage increases on a key low-wage retail sector, and using data on labour market concentration that covers the entirety of the U.S. with fine spatial variation at the occupation level. The results carry over to the fast-food sector and the entire low-wage labour market and are robust to using proxies of labour market concentration available for a broader range of industries, such as the number of establishments and population density. A model of oligopsonistic competition can explain these effects: there is more room to increase wages in high-concentration areas where wages tend to be further below marginal productivity. These findings provide evidence supporting monopsonistic wage setting as an explanation for the near-zero minimum wage employment effect documented in prior work.

THE RESULTS OF WORK PROJECT TCP/RER/3604 “CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE BREEDS IN EASTERN EUROPE”

THE RESULTS OF WORK PROJECT TCP/RER/3604 “CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DUAL-PURPOSE CATTLE BREEDS IN EASTERN EUROPE”

Digital Barriers in Digital Transition and Digital Transformation: Literature Review

Abstract Research purpose. The research aimed to identify digital barriers in the digital transition and digital transformation in businesses and industries under the umbrella of human resource management. The topicality of the research relates to the need to identify digital barriers impeding digital transition and transformation that can be addressed through the prism of human resource management policies or that can be related to human resource management. Design / Methodology / Approach. The research method was the analysis of the keywords and keyword concordances, conducted on the sample of the created corpus of 50 recently published scientific papers, which were analysed using the text analysis instruments AntConc and Voyant Tools. Findings. Two digital barrier types were postulated - individual and organisational barriers, which were further spread across five digital barrier areas - human resource, technological, management, business development, and financial ones that were able to accommodate the following barriers: general human resource, staff resistance, psychological, staff digital competences, decision-makers digital competences, internal information exchange, external information exchange, data processing, technical, IT complexity, poor usability, cybersecurity, general management, business structure, business 4.0, industry 4.0, creativity, and costs. Originality / Value / Practical implications. The created structure of digital barriers provides human resource departments with a global picture of barriers that should be reviewed within their competence areas to ensure the recruitment of specialists capable of conducting specified digital operations and the continuous development of digital competencies of the entire labour force of the organisation. The suggested digital barrier structure can also be used to develop the organisational strategy for the digital transition and digital transformation.

Knowledge, Practices, and Attitudes of Nurses Regarding Non-Pharmacological Pain Management in the Midwifery Ward

Background and Objectives: Pregnant women are frequently worried about labor pain, and it is usually the most important problem for them and their relatives. Non-pharmacological pain relief methods provide several benefits, such as no harmful effects on the fetus or baby, no interruption of labor, and even being pleasurable for the mother and fetus. The aim of this study was to assess the nurse’s knowledge, practice, and attitude toward non-pharmacological pain management methods in the delivery room in Erbil Governorate. Method: The descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to determine nurses' knowledge, practices, and attitudes about labor pain and non-pharmacological pain management, as well as to monitor nurses' practices in the delivery rooms during labor and delivery. A total of 78 nurses from public and private hospitals in Erbil Governorate participated in the study. Structured questionnaires and an observational checklist were used to collect data and used SPSS version 26 was used to analyze it. Result: Nurse’s knowledge (N=27, 50.0%), (N=9, 37.5%) in public and private hospitals was at a good level, and they had a positive attitude (N=32, 59.3%) in public hospitals and a positive attitude (N=14, 58.3%) in private hospitals. But had a fair practice (N=19, 35.18%) in public hospitals and good practice (N=10, 41.7%) in private hospitals towards labor pain and non-pharmacological pain management. This is due to the lack of time, inadequate staff and the great workload of the staff. Conclusion: This survey showed that the knowledge of most of the nurses was at a good level, but it was weak in items such as (cold therapy, acupuncture and acupressure technique), as well as majority of them do the following practices: relaxation technique, give psychological support and, ensure that women's relatives are there during the entire labor process; and they do not use other types of non-Pharmacological

Reaching into the Community to Interpret Labor History

Reaching into the Community to Interpret Labor History

Impacts of embracing 39-week elective induction across an entire labor and delivery unit

Induction of labor among low-risk, 39-week nulliparas increased significantly in the United States following publication of the outcomes of A Randomized Trial of Induction Versus Expectant Management trial. However, the rates of labor induction and outcomes in non-nulliparous patients and the wider impacts on the labor unit have not been reported widely. This study aimed to compare the induction of labor rates and outcomes before and after liberal implementation of 39-week elective induction at a single center. This was a retrospective cohort study comparing the delivery characteristics of pregnancies 1 year before and 1 year after adoption of a new 39-week elective induction policy at a single, tertiary-care center. Notably, elective induction was not restricted to nulliparas. We examined all live, singleton, in-born deliveries ≥36 weeks gestation, excluding those with fetal anomalies and prolonged antenatal admission. Deliveries at ≥39 weeks gestation were further subcategorized as being high risk (diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension, intrauterine growth restriction, history of fetal demise or cholestasis) or low risk, nulliparas vs multiparas, and with or without a previous cesarean delivery. Elective deliveries were those without a maternal, fetal, or obstetrical indication. Primary outcomes included gestational age and indications for delivery, rates of labor induction and elective induction, and time from admission to delivery. Secondary outcomes included the rate of cesarean deliveries, indications for cesarean deliveries, and maternal and newborn morbidities. The outcomes were compared using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests or chi-square tests as appropriate. The odds of cesarean delivery were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression and controlling for relevant confounders. A total of 2672 pre-implementation and 2526 post-implementation deliveries were studied. Among patients at ≥39 weeks gestation, elective delivery increased (pre-implementation, 344/1788 [19.2%] vs post-implementation, 684/1710 [40.0%]; P<.01) and admission for labor or ruptured membranes decreased (pre-implementation, 920/1788 [51.5%] vs post-implementation, 579/1710 [33.9%]; P<.01). Labor induction in the 39th week of gestation increased among low-risk and high-risk nulliparas, multiparas, and those with a previous cesarean delivery (P<.05 for each pairwise comparison), and the rate of 39-week elective inductions increased in all low-risk subgroups. Deliveries at 36 to 38 weeks gestation were similar in the proportion, timing, indications for delivery, and rate of labor induction. The odds of cesarean delivery was unchanged overall (adjusted odds ratio, 0.97; 95% confidence interval, 0.83-1.14) and for low-risk, ≥39-week nulliparas (adjusted odds ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.66-1.23) and low-risk, ≥39-week multiparas (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 0.71-1.98). Among all deliveries, the median (interquartile range) time from admission to delivery increased significantly (pre-implementation, 12.8 [6.0-21.6] hours vs post-implementation, 15.6 [7.1-25.1] hours; P<.01) and the total cumulative patient care time from admission to delivery increased by 15% (pre-implementation, 41,578 hours vs post-implementation, 47,605 hours) when normalized by delivery volume. Chorioamnionitis incidence increased, whereas other maternal and neonatal morbidities were unchanged. Following adoption of a nonrestrictive, 39-week elective induction policy at a single, tertiary-care center, the rates of 39-week induction of labor and elective inductions increased among nulliparas, multiparas, and those with a previous cesarean delivery. The rate of cesarean delivery was unchanged, and the median time from admission to delivery and the cumulative admission to delivery hours increased significantly. Future studies are needed to further explore the full scope of the impacts on labor unit operations, costs, and patient experiences and outcomes.

Educational expansion and shifting private returns to education: Evidence from Mozambique

AbstractWe examine how returns to education have evolved in the context of post‐conflict reconstruction and economic growth in Mozambique over the period 1996–2015. We show that private rates of return to education have declined at lower levels of schooling, but remained stable and possibly even increased at the highest levels. Returns are increasingly convex in non‐agricultural jobs but almost flat in agriculture. Using consumption expenditure data, as opposed to income data, allows estimation of returns for the entire labour market, not just the minority in formal sector jobs. Results are robust to a wide range of specifications, including use of a pseudo‐panel.

Rola związków zawodowych w sytuacji zastosowania ustawy o zwolnieniach grupowych z przyczyn niedotyczących pracowników w kontekście pandemii COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on the economic situation. In Poland, the course of the crisis so far is considered to be quite mild from the perspective of the entire labour market. However, many people have lost their jobs as a result of redundancies. Many industries have suffered despite the protective measures taken up by the Polish legislator in order to limit the possibility of job cuts. Some employers whose financial situation had deteriorated had to reduce employment. This resulted in layoffs for reasons not related to the employees. The legal basis is regulated by the Act of 13 March 2003 on special rules for terminating employment relationships with employees for reasons not related to employees.

Evaluation of Sustainability of Wheat-Bread Chain Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics: A Case Study

Wheat flour, bread, and bakery products are an important source of macronutrients, micronutrients, dietary fibers, and antioxidants. Considering that Iran’s bread industry is the second highest bread-consuming industry in the world, this research is focused on the main operations of the bread production chain (wheat cultivation, milling, dough processing, and bread production). Investigating the sustainability and improvement strategies and farm-to-fork approach for the wheat-bread production chain was the aim of this work. Exergy analysis is a powerful tool in designing, optimizing, and evaluating the performance of energy systems to determine energy quality, compare different energy sources, and achieve maximum system performance. In this research, the cumulative degree of perfection, renewability index, and sustainability index of Iranian traditional loaves of bread (Sangak, Lavash, Barbari) and Baguette bread as a semi-industrial bread were estimated. Considering the functional unit of the weight of the produced bread, Baguette and Sangak breads had the highest and lowest sustainability, respectively. Considering the functional unit of energy of the produced bread, Baguette bread has the lowest exergy consumption per 100 cal of the embedded energy of bread. According to the obtained results, the bakery consumes the most exergy in the wheat-bread chain. Natural gas input is the most important indicator of unsustainability in bakeries. Meanwhile, in the entire wheat-bread chain, human labor and natural gas consumption were factors of unsustainability. By using renewable sources, the renewable index increased by 76–89%. Additionally, the use of renewable resources increased the sustainability index of bread production by 7.6 to 1.9 times.

IoAT Enabled Smart Farming: Urdu Language-Based Solution for Low-Literate Farmers

The agriculture sector is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy, reflecting 26% of its GPD and 43% of the entire labor force. Smart and precise agriculture is the key to producing the best crop yield. Moreover, emerging technologies are reducing energy consumption and cost-effectiveness for saving agricultural resources in control and monitoring systems, especially for those areas lacking these resources. Agricultural productivity is thwarted in many areas of Pakistan due to farmers’ illiteracy, lack of a smart system for remote access to farmland, and an absence of proactive decision-making in all phases of the crop cycle available in their native language. This study proposes an internet of agricultural things (IoAT) based smart system armed with a set of economical, accessible devices and sensors to capture real-time parameters of farms such as soil moisture level, temperature, soil pH level, light intensity, and humidity on frequent intervals of time. The system analyzes the environmental parameters of specific farms and enables the farmers to understand soil and environmental factors, facilitating farmers in terms of soil fertility analysis, suitable crop cultivation, automated irrigation and guidelines, harvest schedule, pest and weed control, crop disease awareness, and fertilizer guidance. The system is integrated with an android application ‘Kistan Pakistan’ (prototype) designed in bilingual, i.e., ‘Urdu’ and ‘English’. The mobile application is equipped with visual components, audio, voice, and iconic and textual menus to be used by diverse literary levels of farmers.

Family firms and the labor productivity controversy: A distributional analysis of varying labor productivity gaps

The question of whether family firms have a higher or lower labor productivity than nonfamily firms has led to a stream of inconsistent evidence. We address this polarized debate by arguing that the idiosyncratic workforce characteristics combined with the dual (socioemotional versus financial) wealth concerns of family firms may differ across the labor productivity distribution, which has a varying impact on the labor productivity differences of family firms versus nonfamily firms. Therefore, we use the method of unconditional quantile regression in our empirical testing on a rich data set containing firm-level data from a national survey of nearly 6,400 Chilean businesses, which allows us to account for the heterogeneous behavior of family firms throughout the entire labor productivity distribution rather than to focus on the difference in mean productivities merely. In line with our theoretical arguments, we find that family ownership generates a productivity advantage for firms located in the lower tail of the labor productivity distribution, whereas it exhibits a negative effect on labor productivity in the upper tail compared to their nonfamily counterparts. Our findings are robust to potential endogeneity of family ownership and offer a reconciling perspective on the contrasting labor-related agency and stewardship arguments dominating the labor productivity debate in family firms so far by showing which argument dominates depending on where the firm is located on the labor productivity distribution.

A critical perspective on the administrative approach to crime prevention: The case of labour trafficking

Building on empirical data from Finnish enforcement agencies, we reflect on the challenges of the administrative approach to crime prevention. At the operational level, we identify explicit legal and implicit extra-legal limitations for using the administrative approach, that we call (1) ‘tunnel view’, (2) ‘structural siloes’, (3) ‘double role’, and (4) ‘blurred lines’. At the conceptual level, we consider the challenges of using the administrative approach in the context of labour trafficking. We argue that the initial set-up of the administrative approach that stresses the serious and organised crime paradigm limits understanding of the habitual and pervasive nature of labour trafficking . Nevertheless, administrative cooperation has the potential to contribute to full ‘labour justice’ as a governance framework that coordinates the efforts of public authorities and their multidimensional strategies to account for the entire labour exploitation spectrum.

Effects of Using Epidural Analgesia during Delivery on Maternal and Infant Outcomes

Objectives: The aim of the study was to estimate the impact of epidural analgesia (EA) during delivery on maternal and infant outcomes. Design: This was a prospective cohort study. Participants: In total, 159 pregnant multiparas in Women and Children’s Hospital, School of Medicine, Xiamen University from November 2019 to May 2020 were enrolled. Patients were divided into the EA group (n = 80) and no analgesia group (n = 79) based on the choice of the parturients. Methods: The duration of labor, levels of umbilical arterial blood gas (pH and partial pressure oxygen), visual analog score (VAS), and adverse events were evaluated to compare differences between the EA group and no analgesia group, respectively. Results: The duration of labor was prolonged in the entire labor (p = 0.002), and the first stage (p = 0.001) in the EA group compared with the no analgesia group. The second stage of labor and third stage of labor, levels of umbilical arterial blood gas, and 1-min Apgar score in neonates were similar in EA and no analgesia groups (All p > 0.05). After adjusting age, prepregnancy body mass index, and past and present medical history, the VAS was low in the EA group compared with the no analgesia group when the uterine orifice was completely open (odds ratio [OR] = 0.001, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.001–0.002), 8 h postdelivery (OR = 0.508, 95% CI: 0.264–0.977), and 24 h postdelivery (OR = 0.321, 95% CI: 0.167–0.617). EA increased the proportion of adverse events occurring 5 min postdelivery (χ2 = 10.137, p = 0.001), while decreased the proportion of adverse events occurring 24 h postdelivery (χ2 = 4.750, p = 0.029). Limitations: In terms of the effects of EA on neonates, we only measured the 1-min Apgar score of neonates. Conclusions: EA might be a reliable pain relief method for pregnant women. The results of our study might give a reference for the use of EA during delivery in clinic.