Mobile Workers Research Articles

Use of mixed reality for the training of operators of mobile elevating work platforms with the aim of increasing the level of health and safety at work and reducing training costs

The article presents an immersive multisensory simulator developed in a project co-financed by INAIL (the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority) as part of a collaborative research program for the application of innovative technologies and systems to the management of health and safety at work. Specifically, the program provides for the development of simulators for the structuring of skills qualification paths for operators in charge of running and maintaining the most dangerous work equipment. The simulator we present reproduces all the aspects that contribute to a complete driving experience of the simulated machine in an artificial working environment that replicates typical and atypical operations and hazards involved in the use of self-propelled mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) with an extendable articulated boom. The simulator has been designed following the analysis of the most critical working routines with aerial work platforms and using physical components of a real MEWP combined with immersive Virtual Reality technologies. The use of Extended Reality technologies to simulate challenging work scenarios makes it possible to train operators by confronting them with very risky situations without any real danger, both in terms of damage to machinery, and above all in terms of user’s safety. The presented simulation system has been designed as a high-TRL prototype to demonstrate the feasibility of developing training programs in the context of occupational safety and health, based on a mixed-reality simulator targeting MEWP operators and verifiers.

Theoretical design of decentralized auction framework under mobile crowdsourcing environment

With the rapid popularization of mobile devices, the mobile crowdsourcing has become a hot topic in order to make full use of the resources of mobile devices. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to design an excellent incentive mechanism to encourage more mobile users to actively undertake crowdsourcing tasks, so as to achieve maximization of certain economic indicators. However, most of the reported incentive mechanisms in the existing literature adopt a centralized platform, which collects the bidding information from workers and task requesters. There is a risk of privacy exposure. In this paper, we design a decentralized auction framework where mobile workers are sellers and task requesters are buyers. This requires each participant to make its own local and independent decision, thereby avoiding centralized processing of task allocation and pricing. Both of them aim to maximize their utilities under the budget constraint. We theoretically prove that our proposed framework is individual rational, budget balanced, truthful, and computationally efficient, and then we conduct a group of numerical simulations to demonstrate its correctness and effectiveness.

State of care for EU mobile workers' rights in the Dutch meat sector in times of, and beyond, COVID-19

PurposeWith a focus on the position of EU mobile workers in the Dutch meat industry, this article discusses the multi-level State efforts to enhance protection of workers who experienced limited protection of existing State and private enforcement institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic, with virus outbreaks at Dutch meat plants, fuelled public and political will to structurally improve these workers' precarious work and living conditions. Yet, the process of policy change is slow. The authors show it is the gradual transformation in the institutional environment that the State needs to counter to become more protective for EU mobile workers.Design/methodology/approachUsing the gradual institutional change approach and the concept of State ignorance, the authors examine State responses drawing on interviews with expert stakeholders in the public and private domain, public administration records and newspaper articles.FindingsThrough knowledge creation, boosted social dialogue mechanisms, enhanced enforcement capacity and new housing legislation, the Dutch State focuses on countering gradual institutional change through which existing institutions lost their effectiveness as protectors of EU mobile workers. The organization of work is, nevertheless, not (yet) fundamentally addressed with tighter public legislation.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of the State as multifaceted actor in institutional change processes towards increased protection for EU mobile workers.

Essential EU mobile workers in the Dutch food supply chain: occupational safety and health policies during and after the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract The pandemic has revealed the dependence of many labour markets on EU mobile ((im)migrant) workers, particularly in sectors designated as essential for national economies. Despite many EU workers falling under the label of ‘essential workers’, they are nonetheless vulnerable to unhealthy and unfair working and living conditions linked to the type of work they perform (manual), the conditions of their employment (highly flexible) and their lack of social networks that makes them dependent on their employers for housing and health. Taking EU mobile workers in the meat and distribution sectors, two specific Food Supply Chain sectors in the Netherlands, as a case study, this contribution discusses how in the Netherlands protection during the Covid-19 pandemic was organized for this group of workers in relation to protective measures at the work place, quarantining, pay during periods of quarantine and protection against job loss, and access to public health services (testing, vaccines), topics that generated a great deal of insecurity among EU mobile workers. The analysis is based on data provided by a survey among 153 EU mobile workers (May-July 2021), 35 interviews with Polish and Romanian workers, and 50 interviews with national stakeholders. The aim is to problematize the disjuncture revealed by the pandemic between an EU legal regime that prioritizes mobility and national arrangements around welfare and social protection that leave many mobile workers vulnerable. We argue that EU free movement of workers needs to be flanked by measures to ensure that the people who move do so under decent and fair conditions.

Going paper-lite: housebound patient perspectives on the introduction of mobile working.

Healthcare policies promote technology use as a means to modernise healthcare and support seamless, person-centred care. However, despite information technology (IT) use being common practice in clinical settings, its use in patients' homes is still developing. This study explored patients' perspectives on the use of IT and electronic health records (EHR) in their home environment. Semi structured interviews were conducted with housebound patients who received regular care from the district nursing team, and thematic data analysis was undertaken. Participants reported variable knowledge and experiences with mobile working and EHR. Most were positive and identified clear benefits for clinicians. However, few participants reported benefits to themselves. Contrary to popular belief, IT use is expected by older patients and, while barriers were identified, the overall opinion was positive. A digital divide was apparent, with some at risk of being disadvantaged by the increasing use of technology.

Tax Treaties and the Mobility of Workers

After an introduction about the mobility of workers under the Covid crisis and its tax implications (section 1), the article begins by providing at section 2 a general overview of Art. 15 § 1 which attributes taxing power to the country where the activities are carried out as well as to the country of residence of the worker, creating a potential situation of double taxation. The article goes on at section 3 to provide an overview of the very relevant exception provided by Art. 15 § 2 which spells out the requirements under which the mobile worker is taxable only in the country of residence thereby preventing double taxation and simplifying tax compliance for the mobile worker. The article at section 4 develops a discussion of the so called ‘hiringout of labor’ which is pursued through aggressive tax structures that abuse the benefit of exclusive taxation provided by Art. 15 § 2. The paper after a digression about the wider concept of tax migration and exit taxes (section 5), concludes briefly discussing the impacts that the recent Covid crisis might have had on the system of tax treaty rules about the mobility of workers (section 6). Mobility of workers, migration, tax treaties, hiring-out of labor, aggressive tax strategies, exit taxes, Covid crisis, country of residence, double taxation, country of source

Robust Indoor Localization Using Histogram of Oriented Depth Model Feature Map for Intelligent Service Robotics

Indoor service robots accumulate errors when its own reference map differs from the true environment such as when furniture has been rearranged in an area. This results in poor localization accuracy when pose estimation relies on outdated maps. Traditional methods address this issue by rebuilding the reference map from scratch. In this article, we propose a histogram of oriented depth model (HODM) and its extraction approach using laser rangefinders and RGBD cameras. HODM aims to provide a light and robust localization module so that mobile robots work in environments required by rearrangement from time to time. The key concept of HODM is based on using histogram-based model matching for estimating indoor primary structures and floor layouts. HODM localization will use an HODM map as a reference in scan matching, and the experimental results show that the localization error is lower than traditional non-HODM-based localization methods. In the same indoor location, the mapping process is only required once. The HODM approach presented in this article shows two major contributions. First, the localization error is lower even with an outdated reference map when compared with traditional localization methods, and, second, the computational time of HODM is fast. We validate this proposed method through numerical simulations and actual experiments in our laboratory using our experimental mobile robot developed in our NTU-iCeiA robotics laboratory.

The pan-European Personal Pension Product: key characteristics and main challenges

Against the background of increasing challenges within the European Union related to ageing societies, a prevailing low interest environment, increasingly mobile life and work across the EU and the general distribution of wealth, several stakeholders within the EU have acknowledged the need to support the adequacy of national public pension schemes. This resulted in the conception of a Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP), voluntary and portable across the European Economic Area (EEA), aiming at combining profitability, transparency as well as the security and quality of the related investments. Embedded into the greater scheme of the aspired European Capital Markets Union, PEPP is intended as simple and affordable savings option for everyone with the goal of closing the pension gap. This paper revisits the process towards the current, finalized state of PEPP, exploring its product features, regulatory requirements and key challenges with regard to the possible emergence of products since 2022.

Queering Sex Work and Mobility

This paper explores the intersections of sex work, mobility, and gendered sexualities through a queer lens. It is based on a study that made use of digital storytelling and WhatsApp to engage 17 migrant and mobile sex workers in South Africa. Through a queering of sex work and migration/mobility analysis, it demonstrates that because sex work is essentially about using one’s body to perform varying sexual acts with different types of people for financial gain, migrant and mobile sex workers are exposed to different ways of experiencing sexual (dis)pleasure. According to the research participants, this can then broaden the body’s erotic vocabulary and expand one’s range of sexual desires, along with their expressions, to the point where it can also have an influence on one’s gendered sexuality and choice of intimate partner. However, the respondents also stressed the integral role movement plays in this evolution of one’s gendered sexuality. Hence, this paper argues for the recognition of migrant and mobile sex work as intrinsically queer and concludes by unpacking the socio-political implications of this in relation to (sexual) citizenship.

Development of the new employment forms in the context of digital transformation of the economy

The article deals with the problems of the formation of new forms of employment under the influence of digitalisation processes and a protracted economic crisis. The purpose of the study is to consider the little-studied aspects of development of the new forms of employment in the conditions of the “fourth industrial revolution” and determine their prospects. The work shows that the spread of new forms of employment in the context of the formation of a new technological order indicates the digital transformation of the economy and at the same time acts as a response to the economic crisis caused by the obsolescence of the industries of the outgoing modes due to the gradual exhaustion of their efficiency, including impact of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the introduction of new elements of employment into the system of social and labor relations does not eliminate the previously existing conflicts of interests of their participants, but ensures a more dynamic development of the labor market and increases the adaptive potential of workers. Particular attention is paid to such forms of work organization as mobile work based on information and communication technologies, work on platforms and sharing of employees’ labor. The authors conduct a comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of these forms of employment based on employers’ and employees’ interests and points of view. Reserves of growth and restrictions on the development of new forms of employment have been identified. Attention is focused on the social and cultural consequences of increased flexibility and mobility of labor relations in the context of the development of new non-standard forms of employment. The results of the study can be used in developing areas for improvement of employment policy in the context of further deployment of digitalisation processes.

A Working from Home (WFH) 2022 - Best Practices Implementation and Case Study of Company

While four per cent of employees in Germany worked from home before the covid crisis, this figure was around 30 per cent in the first lockdown in April 2020. Now working from home and mobile working are part of the everyday life of many employees. Experience has shown that many activities can also be carried out from other locations than the classic office in the company. Location-flexible work will also still be standard in some sectors after the crisis. This article shows employees' experiences with working from home in corona times, with serious advantages and disadvantages being reported. Best practices as implementation of company agreements are presented based on an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) example: Example of working from home (WFH) / office work, life-phase oriented working time instruments as a personnel management success factor, promotion of cross-border cooperation, efficient use of resources, questions on learning from the pandemic, working through the corona period with employees, recommendations for surviving this crisis and culture of trust versus control.

Mobile work, mobility, and mobile devices: Responding to a societal shift

Mobile work, mobility, and mobile devices: Responding to a societal shift

Stories of the gendered mobile work of English lorry driving

One proposed strategy to overcome labour shortages in male-dominated jobs is to attract female workers. This has been the case for lorry driving in the UK. These efforts, however, often work to reproduce binary gendered stereotypes, or seek to include women without questioning how working conditions and everyday embodied work itself constructs gender roles and difference and is differentially experienced. In this paper, we highlight differentiated lorry driving bodies at work, centring lorries as an essential part of global logistical systems. Empirically drawing from interviews and mobile ethnographies with freight drivers in England, we tell a series of composite stories which uncover gendered ideals of worker-bodies, and embodied experiences of mobilities. With the gendered, embodied life’s work of lorry driving remaining largely invisible and poorly understood, we illustrate the complex intersections between places, people, materialities and forms of work. Through this paper, we show how (gendered) narratives and bodily difference are both reproduced and disrupted through lorry driving work. We argue that only through recognising – and destabilising - the gendered re/production of mobile work will other logistical futures be made possible.

Заболеваемость COVID-19 работников станции скорой медицинской помощи города Рязани

The biological factor is one of the leading adverse labor factors for medical workers. Establishing risk factors of exposure to COVID‑19 within this occupational group is a relevant hygienic task. The purpose of the study is to examine the morbidity in coronavirus among the emergency ward workers and determine risk factors of occupational infection. The morbidity rate of COVID‑19 among the emergency ward workers in Ryazan for 2020–2021 has been analyzed. The highest risk of COVID‑19 infection was established for medical workers of mobile teams. The infection risks for drivers and medical workers were comparable. Comparative analysis of COVID‑19 infection rates for drivers and employees of the ward not engaged in mobile teams confirms higher risks of infection of mobile team workers, including the ones who do not participate in provision of medical aid directly. High morbidity rates and statistically significant probability of a more severe course of the disease among mobile team medical workers as compared to drivers and employees not engaged in mobile teams are probably not accidental, and are due to a closer contact with a patient while providing medical aid and, as a consequence, a higher viral load that partially determines the disease severity. Emergency ward workers have a high occupational risk of exposure to COVID‑19 during the pandemic. Mobile team medical workers and drivers are at higher risk of developing the novel coronavirus infection. Emergency care mobile team medical personnel are subjected to the highest risk of a more severe course of the disease.

Trends for Mobile IoT Crowdsourcing Privacy and Security in the Big Data Era

From tracking pandemics to applications, such as Google Maps, Uber, environmental monitoring, journalism, healthcare, crisis/disaster response, air quality control, noise and traffic monitoring, urban planning, etc., mobile crowdsourcing (MCS) systems are interweaved with the society and daily lives. This survey outlines major security and privacy challenges in MCS systems along with solutions and approaches. Comprehensive countermeasures, leveraging the capabilities of blockchains, smart contracts, machine learning, games, incentives, spatiotemporal cloaking, etc., are presented to preserve privacy and security of mobile workers, task requestors, and other aspects of crowdsourcing systems. Security recommendations for use cases, such as Industrial IoT, Internet of Vehicles, wireless crowdsensed systems, social crowdsourcing, edge computing, personalized and privacy-preserving recommendation, and mobile worker recruitment are further elaborated.

Work Activity Pattern and Collaboration Network: New Drivers for Workplace Space Planning and Design

Information about the users’ work activity patterns is essential for office space planning and the design of organizations. However, it is not clear yet what factors can be used for predicting work activities, especially at the group level. In this study, we found that work activity patterns of groups are associated with the workgroup's job function and their location in the organizational collaboration networks. Two hypotheses were tested through a survey conducted on a sample of 188 managers from an Italian utility company. The participants were asked about (1) the percentage of time different groups (based on job function and demographic composition) spent doing individual, collaborative, and mobile work; and (2) how network connectivity affected individual versus group work. The results showed that workgroups with different job functions spent different percentages of time on individual, mobile, and teamwork. Communication network connectivity is not significantly correlated with the amount of time spent on individual work, but statistical evidence confirmed that it plays an essential role for the assessment of the amount of work time spent on teamwork, even more than job functions. By investigating the factors affecting collaborations between groups, we advanced the research on work activity in large companies in order to complement existing studies that mostly addressed work activity patterns at the individual level. How information about collaboration networks can be utilized for space planning and flexible work arrangement policy–making is also discussed, in light of the changes that the COVID–19 pandemic has triggered.

‘This is not a posted worker’ – short-term cross-border mobility of logistics workers and spatio-temporal dimensions of exploitation in the EU: evidence from the case law of the Court of Justice

AbstractSince the 2018 revision of the Posting of Workers Directive, the debate on posting has once again been heated. The spark comes particularly from disputes concerning cross-border mobility of highly mobile workers employed in transnational logistics services (Dobersberger, FNV, Rapidsped, and to a different extent Gruber and Samidani and AFMB). In this set of case law, the Court of Justice of the EU had to consider whether or not, and to what extent, the workers in question should be considered posted workers. Thus, the case law came to revolve around the spatial and territorial attributes, and the cross-border nature of the work performed. By resorting to the analytical tools provided by legal geography, and in particular to the concept of ‘chronotopes of law’ elaborated by Mariana Valverde, the aim of this piece is to reflect upon assumptions and implications of the aforementioned rulings with a view of discussing both structural and contingent elements that possibly favour exploitation of posted work in the transnational logistics industry.

2D Mapping Lingkungan Indoor Menggunakan Lidar dan ROS untuk Mobile Robot

Currently, the application of control systems has been applied in various scientific fields including mechatronics and robotics. Applications in the branch of robotics are also growing day by day not only with conventional controls but also with intelligent systems. An autonomous robot in carrying out certain missions in an unknown environment requires information about the location itself and the environment through the map. A process to identify a position without a map is called a localization function on the robot. Mobile robots building maps and localization are two fundamental tasks when mobile robots work in indoor environments. With 2D laser scanning (LiDAR) data obtained in real-time, the robot can calculate the area of ​​all empty spaces in a room, then can choose the center of the room as its position for map building. The objective of this research is to implement a two-dimensional mapping method using LiDAR. The algorithm used in this study is the Gmapping Technique on ROS. The main purpose of this research is to map mobile robots with LIDAR sensors using the Robot Operating System for navigation and positioning of mobile robots. Through the actual experimental results, the mobile robot will move with a 2-dimensional mapping process.

Veränderungen beim Wohnen und von Standortpräferenzen durch Homeoffice in der Covid-19-Pandemie?

With the shift of the workplace to the private home in the Covid-19-pandemic, the sphere of gainful employment has more or less abruptly invaded the private sphere and has not only led to necessary adaptations in houses and flats, but has also raised new questions about the attractiveness of residential locations. Based on the results of an online survey, this paper examines the influence of home office on housing and settlement structures. Considerations of co-working spaces, another form of mobile work, are also included in the analyses. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the discussionabout the attractiveness of residential locations and the consequences of mobile working for housing behaviour. The results show: Contrary to what media discussions suggest, no clear effects on location preferences or a ‘new desire for thecountryside’ can be identified (so far). Furthermore, there is an increased willingness to move, especially in flats that are perceived as too small; dissatisfaction with the flat is higher among respondents with little space. Co-working Spaces donot yet play a role, but respondents with a preference for flexible forms of work are considering them.

Towards Digital Workplace Framework: Roles and Tasks of Mobile Worker

The digital workplace is a new concept that uses technology to modernize traditional business processes and workflows. In the context of digital workplace, mobile worker is identified as one of the critical elements of digital workplace and called mobile worker. Since digital workplace relates to organization change management, any changes in each component can effect other component. Therefore, there is a need to understand the connection of between each component in a context of digital workplace. Therefore, this study will be strengthening connections between technology, task and people components in the context of digital workplace. This study also, will explore potential key features and job roles of people to be good in performing task within digital workplace. In this research applies a literature review method by implementing literature search and analysis on related topics. An empirical study was conducted to identify the main characteristics of the mobile worker and the changes in the job roles of the mobile worker. The result shows components for digital workplace applied modernize traditional business process and workflows using technology. However, rely on technology alone is not enough. Applying changes is important as to develop a successful organization. But, any changes on a component make other elements need to be considered: people, task, technology and structure. However, this research has a limitation in looking at the productivity of mobile workers. Future research should therefore investigate factors that enhance the productivity of mobile workers.