Regular Workers Research Articles

A study on the factors that affect the working conditions of the disabled for the duration of employment: Comparison between regular and temporary workers

A study on the factors that affect the working conditions of the disabled for the duration of employment: Comparison between regular and temporary workers

The Impact of Implementing a Namaste Care Intervention in UK Care Homes for People Living with Advanced Dementia, Staff and Families.

Care homes can struggle to provide optimal care for residents with advanced dementia. Namaste Care provides a structured daily programme of physical, sensory and emotional care delivered by regular care workers. A three-year, mixed method process study of implementation and impact created a manualised Namaste Care Intervention for UK care homes (NCI-UK). This article reports on the impact of NCI-UK delivered consistently in five care homes for 12–24 weeks. Impact for residents was assessed using, pre-post data, showing significant positive effects for QUALID (t = 2.92, p = 0.01, n = 31) and CMAI (t = 3.31, p = 0.002, n = 32), alongside many qualitative examples of positive impacts on wellbeing, responsiveness and communication. Pre-post staff questionnaire data (n = 20) were not significant. Qualitative data indicated that NCI-UK is a positive staff experience, providing sense of purpose, improved wellbeing and relationships. The care homes reported benefiting from implementing NCI-UK in terms of reputation and quality improvement. Family interviews were also positive, relating to seeing the difference, improving relationships and being involved. NCI-UK can therefore be recommended as an impactful intervention for residents, staff and families.

Association of poor psychological well-being with co-exposure to psychosocial factors at work in Korean regular workers.

This study evaluated the association of co-exposure to different psychosocial factors with poor psychological well-being of Korean regular workers. This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 2017. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine adjusted odd ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals for poor psychological well-being associated with self-reported psychosocial factors. Poor psychological well-being was measured using the Well-Being Index of the World Health Organization. For each question on psychosocial factors (long weekly working hours, lack of decision latitude, work pressure, lack of autonomy, lack of role clarity, organizational injustice, lack of reward, and lack of support from managers), answers of "always" and "most of the time" were classified as affirmative and answers of"sometimes," "rarely," and "never" were classified as negative. Poor psychological well-being was significantly associated with most individual work stressors for both sexes (aORs = 1.22-1.83). Furthermore, poor psychological well-being had a positive association with co-exposure to different psychosocial factors (aORs = 1.71-8.08). Co-exposure to an increasing number of psychosocial factors showed greater association with poor psychological well-being. We found that poor psychological well-being was associated with co-exposure to psychosocial factors in Korean workers in regular employment. Thus, we suggest that employers provide comprehensive measures that will protect workers from simultaneous exposure to adverse psychosocial factors.

Female outsiders in South Korea’s dual labour market: Challenges of equal pay for work of equal value

South Korea has a persistent gender pay gap despite its ratification of the Equal Remuneration Convention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO 100) and regulatory commitments to equal pay. This article identifies the extent to which the South Korean gendered dual labour market structure, notably the marked and gendered division between regular and irregular work, presents barriers to gender pay equality, and specifically to the implementation of equal pay principles. A layered examination of employment data, narrowing from aggregate statistics to occupations within two sub-industry groups, is used to examine how pay differences between women and men in work that is similar in content and educational requirements arise from their mode of employment, whether they are employed as regular or irregular workers. These structural divisions in the South Korean labour market are underpinned by a divided wage-setting system within which irregular workers are mostly excluded from benefits such as wage increases arising from seniority, and objective assessments of work value are lacking. In combination, these features help to explain why the principle of equal pay for equal work is breached and why limited progress has been made in meeting the requirements of equal pay for work of equal value.

Exploring the factors predicting savings among Korean working poor young adults

본 연구의 목적은 저축이 빈곤 청년들의 탈빈곤을 지원하고 빈곤에의 재진입을 예방하며 나아가경제적 안정을 성취하는 데에 기여하는 중요한 요소로 보고, 생계급여 수급 가구 청년들의 저축에영향을 미치는 요인을 탐색하는 것이다. 빈곤 청년의 인구사회학적 특성 및 건강 요인, 경제적특성, 고용 특성, 제도적 특성이 저축액에 미치는 영향을 위계적 다중회귀분석을 사용하여 검증하였다. 또한 자산형성지원사업에 참여하고 있는 경우, 자유납입액과 이를 제외한 저축액에 영향을미치는 요인이 다를 수 있기 때문에 자유납입액을 포함한 총 저축액과 제외한 저축액을 구분하여분석하였다. 분석결과, 인구사회학적 특성 및 건강 요인만을 투입한 모델에 비해 경제적 특성, 고용 특성, 제도적 특성을 추가적으로 투입하였을 때, 모델의 설명력이 유의한 정도로 높아지는것으로 나타났다. 변수별 영향력에 대한 분석결과, 근로/사업소득, 지출이 많을수록, 시간제에 비해전일제 근로자일수록, 임시·일용직에 비해 상용직 근로자일수록, 자산형성지원사업에 참여할수록 총 저축액이 더 많은 것으로 나타났다. 자산형성사업 자유납입액을 제외한 저축액의 경우, 남성보다 여성이, 지출이 많을수록, 시간제에 비해 전일제 근로자일수록, 임시·일용직에 비해 상용직근로자일수록 자유납입액을 제외한 저축액이 많은 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과로부터 사회복지실천적, 정책적 함의를 도출하고자 한다.As savings can help people escape from poverty, prevent re-entry to poverty, and achieve financial stability, this study aims to comprehensively explore the factors predicting savings among low-income young adults in South Korea. We examine the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and health status, economic, employment-related and institutional factors on savings among young adults with ages between 19 and 34 years old using hierarchical multiple regression. The study utilizes two different dependent variables - Savings with and without savings to individual development account(IDA) because the factors affecting the amount of savings can be different according to whether participating in IDA or not. The study results suggest that those with higher income, and more spending, who work as full-time employee and are regular workers (permanent employees) and participate in asset-building policies (e.g., individual development accounts for young adults) are more likely to save compared to their counterparts with lower income, and lower spending, who work as part-time employees, are temporary workers, and do not participate in asset-building policies. Based on our findings, practice and policy implications are also discussed.

Barriers to ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ for women in Japan: Assessing the potential for change

This article examines barriers to the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value in Japan, reviewing impediments to the implementation of the International Labour Organisation’s Equal Remuneration Convention, and assessing whether the 2018 Work Style Reform Act–which seeks to reduce pay disparities between regular and non-regular workers through a Japanese version of ‘equal pay for equal work’–provides an alternative avenue through which stronger notions of work value and equality might become integrated into Japanese wage-setting norms and practices. This has implications for the gender pay gap, which could be addressed more effectively within a regulatory framework recognising equal pay for equal (value) work as a legal norm, as well as narrowed indirectly through improving remuneration for non-regular workers (the majority of whom are women). The analysis highlights the limits of the new legislative measures, arguing that in spite of some potential for improving pay for non-regular workers, they lack important features conducive to the pursuit of gender pay equality, in particular non-biased concepts of value, effective job evaluation models and a more inclusive gender/human rights perspective.

Education, Caste and Women’s Work in India

Based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (2017–2018), this paper explores women’s labour market participation and employment patterns mediated by education and caste, with a focus on highly educated women. We find that women’s workforce participation follows a clear caste pattern, with the upper castes having the lowest work participation rates and this increases as we go down the caste hierarchy. These differences narrow down among highly educated women (graduate and above), particularly in urban areas. Considering the workforce participation rate (WPR) by education, female WPR by education class follows a U-shape and this holds across castes. Caste patterns persist in work status; in the female labour force in urban areas, general-caste women are more likely to be in regular employment characterised by employment stability than the other social groups. Among regular workers, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) women are more likely to work in the public sector—a likely result of affirmative action policies of the state. However, while the policy of reservations may have worked in favour of SC/ST communities in terms of accessing public employment, it has not translated to access to good-quality jobs as caste patterns permeate into industry and occupation. Regression results show that caste and education emerge as important variables that explain women’s workforce participation, and the interaction effect of caste and education is critical in understanding women’s work participation. That accessing education even at the highest levels does not level the gap between social groups in terms of WPR implying that policies aimed towards increasing female employment therefore need to be nuanced to take into account the hetegeneous nature of the women workers, even for the highly educated segment.

The prevalence of excessive sleepiness is higher in shift workers than in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a common feature among shift workers as well as in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients. There are several important accidents related to sleep disturbances causing EDS. The aim of this study was to evaluate EDS in a group of shift workers (regular rotating) from civil aviation and to compare them with OSA patients (n=300) and with a group of regular workers (RW) (n=140). Our sample was composed of 730 working-age individuals (aged 18-67years). The regular rotating shift workers (SW) sample was composed of 290 aeronautical mechanics. EDS was evaluated with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and defined as a score≥11. The prevalence value obtained for the EDS of RW was 37.1%, for SW it was 60.7% and for OSA patients it was 40.7%. A logistic regression model for EDS in a subsample composed of men and matched for age and BMI, controlling for self-reported sleep duration, showed an increased risk of EDS for SW (OR=3.91, p=.001), with the RW group as reference. OSA patients did not differ from RW on EDS levels. This study emphasizes the presence of EDS in a shift work group of civil aviation professionals, which exceeded the EDS level of a positive control group of OSA patients. Sleep hygiene education for companies' workers and management is important and mitigation strategies should be implemented to reduce excessive sleepiness among workers.

Do anti-discrimination laws alleviate labour market duality?

PurposeThis paper examines whether and how labour market duality can be alleviated through legislation that prohibits discrimination based on employment type.Design/methodology/approachIn 2007, the Korean government undertook a labour reform banning discriminatory treatment against fixed-term, part-time and dispatched workers. By exploiting a gradual implementation of the anti-discrimination law by firm size targeting a subset of non-regular workers, the paper identifies the treatment effects of the anti-discrimination law, taking a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach.FindingsThe results suggest that the anti-discrimination law significantly increases hourly wages and the probabilities of being covered by national pension, health insurance, and employment insurance for targeted non-regular workers in small firms relative to other workers. Anticipatory behaviours of employers and selective transitions of employees in response to the implementation of the anti-discrimination law do not underlie the estimated effects. The presence of labour unions contributes to reducing gaps in labour conditions between regular workers and targeted non-regular workers.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is to provide empirical evidence on causal impacts of equal pay legislation on the gaps in labour conditions between different categories of workers, using a difference-in-difference-in-differences estimation.

Why Do Governments Employ Irregular Workers? - Theory and Evidence from Japan

In many countries, governments sometimes employ irregular workers. Although their employment is fragile and is causing working poor'' problem, local governments sometimes offer many temporary and irregular jobs and many people apply to them. To answer the reason why governments sometime employ irregular workers, we firstly investigate the factors to increase them by using data about Japanese municipalities. The empirical analysis finds that the increase of irregular workers does not relate to the fiscal situation of local governments while it relates to the increase of needs for public service, the increase of salary for regular workers and the decrease of the minimum wage level. Corresponding to this, we make an adverse selection model about job offer for regular and irregular workers. This theoretical model shows that the increase of irregular workers does not necessarily lead to reduction of labor cost.

A study on the effect of Wage Gaps on the Distribution of income and Poverty

In this article, we analyzed the relation among wage gap, income distribution, and poverty in the labor market using the Korean welfare panel survey. According to the results of the analysis, the wage gap between men and women is decreasing as a result of cross-analysis, but the difference in education level, company size, and wage difference between regular and non-regular workers is increasing. In the case of a workplace with less than five people, the poverty experience rate is high. Dynamically, the proportion of both men and women who are self-employed with lower than middle school education has experienced a significant increase in long-term or repeated poverty. According to the company size, long-term poverty rate was 14.9% for men and 16.6% for women when the strength of the workplace was less than 5 for both men and women, and it was analyzed to be more vulnerable to poverty than other groups. Further, it was analyzed that a small business or small company was highly likely to experience poverty repeatedly. This result was the same even based on the income quintile. To improve the distribution due to the wage gap in the labor market, the same wage system for the same labor needs to be established. To reduce the difference in wages by company size, the government needs to develop policies and support to reduce the expenditure of workers in small businesses.

The Role of Social Allowance in an Era of Increasing Multiple Disparities

We are living in an era of a spectacular growth of nonstandard work arrangements, gig-workers, and on-demand and flexible hours workers; their work patterns deviate from the archetypical employment. We are also experiencing merely patchy social protection coverage which shown many of its drawbacks in a stark contrast with the welfare state of golden age. There is a great disparity between regular and irregular workers, between prime-age workers and young workers(job seekers), between employed workers and self-employed workers. There are structured disparities by income classes, education achievements, and employment status which are increasingly and constantly intertwined. It is, therefore, time we should reform our contributory social protection systems for better coverage, and it is high time to redesign the social allowance scheme including a temporary allowance and a special scheme, which are un-tied benefits from contributions in order to properly help the truly disadvantaged who rigid social insurances fail to support.

Factors Related to Physical and Mental Health in Workers With Different Categories of Employment

We examined a large representative sample of workers in South Korea to compare the subjective well-being and musculoskeletal symptoms of those with standard employment and those with non-standard employment (temporary, daily, and part-time work). This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Condition Survey, conducted in 2017. Female part-time workers who had temporary and daily jobs were more likely to have poor subjective well-being, whereas female regular workers with part-time jobs were less likely to have poor subjective well-being than regular workers with full-time jobs. Daily workers of both sex with full-time jobs were more likely to have musculoskeletal pain than regular workers. Our characterization of workers with precarious employment indicated that several modifiable factors affected the subjective well-being and musculoskeletal symptoms of these workers.

Pass the Remote: Why We Can't All Work From Home

In recent years, there has been a trend towards greater incidence of homeworking. This has been driven by enhanced technological possibilities, but also by supply and demand factors. There is some evidence that homeworking can boost productivity, but not all workers are suited to work and some might find the isolation problematic. Headline totals of full-time workers are misleading. The bulk of those classified are self-employed, and only a minority corresponds to the popular image of workers in home offices in front of a computer screen. Regular workers are a relatively privileged group, many in professional and managerial roles. They are older than the average member of the workforce and better paid. The current lockdown means more will be working at home, but it seems unlikely that more than 15% of healthy workers confined to will be able to work productively for their employer or their business. Those who cannot work productively include many younger workers who are normally employed in bars, restaurants, hotels and retail outlets, but also include self-employed skilled workers who normally go out to serve clients and customers from a base. The requirement for a substantial period of isolation is a more serious matter for these groups, both in terms of current incomes and future prospects, than it is for the journalists, politicians, academics, and think-tankers who dominate public discourse.

Occupational differences in workers' compensation indemnity claims among direct care workers in Minnesota nursing homes, 2005-2016.

Nursing assistants have one of the highest injury rates in the U.S., but few population-based studies assess differential injury risk by occupation in nursing homes. This statewide study assessed differences in musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and patient handling injuries among direct care workers in Minnesota nursing homes. Indemnity claims from the Minnesota workers' compensation database were matched to time at risk from the Minnesota Nursing Home Report Card to estimate 2005 to 2016 injury and illness claim rates for certified nursing assistants (CNAs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and registered nurses (RNs). Associations between occupation and claim characteristics were assessed using multivariable regression modeling. Indemnity claim rates were 3.68, 1.38, and 0.69 per 100 full-time equivalent workers for CNAs, LPNs, and RNs, respectively. Patient handling injuries comprised 62% of claims. Compared to RNs, CNAs had higher odds of an indemnity claim resulting from an MSD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.31-2.14) or patient handling injury (OR = 1.89; 95% CI, 1.47-2.45) as opposed to another type of injury or illness. CNAs had lower odds of receiving temporary and permanent partial disability benefits and higher odds of receiving a stipulation settlement. CNAs in Minnesota nursing homes are at heightened risk for lost time MSDs and patient handling injuries. Claims filed by CNAs are more frequently settled outside the regular workers' compensation benefit structure, an indication that the workers' compensation system is not providing adequate and timely benefits to these workers.

Heterogeneous Worker Flows and Japan's Labor Market

This study divides workers into regular, non-regular, and self-employed and other workers, and investigates the role of the flows of these different types of workers on Japan's labor market stocks using a counterfactual simulation. I find that the job finding rate for non-regular jobs and the participation margin are relatively important for the evolution of Japan's unemployment rate. Further, the transitions between regular and non-regular works are important for the dynamics of Japan's non-regular worker ratio.

Prevalence of Noise Induced Hearing Loss Among the Workers of Metallurgical Factory; A study Conducted at Nishtar Hospital Multan

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of nose induced hearing loss in the industrial workers and its association with age, gender and duration of exposure. Study design: A cross sectional study. Place and duration of study: ENT department of Nishtar Hospital Multan from July 1st 2018 to June 30th 2019. Methodology: Age, gender, duration of exposure, overtime workers and presence of NIHL was noted for 316 workers. Three age groups were made i.e. <30 years, 30-40 years and >40 years. Duration of exposure was categorized as <5 years, 5-15 years, and >15 years. Overtime workers were classified as those who worked for >8hours daily. Workers having NIHL were compared in both genders, age groups, exposure duration groups and according to daily duration of work. Number and percentages were calculated. Results were significant if p ?0.05. Results: At the time of study, 67 (21%) had developed noise induced hearing loss. Considering exposure duration of workers to noise, 12% with <5years of exposure; 28.8% with 5-15years of exposure; and 28.7% with >15years of exposure developed NIHL (p=0.001). Frequency of NIHL was 38.4% in overtime workers as compared to 16% among regular workers (p<0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of NIHL is very high among the workers who are constantly exposed to noise and it rises with the prolongation of total exposure time as well as daily exposure time.

Distinction without a difference? An assessment of MTurk Worker types

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform is a popular tool for scholars seeking a reasonably representative population to recruit subjects for academic research that is cheaper than contract work via survey research firms. Numerous scholarly inquiries affirm that the MTurk pool is at least as representative as college student samples; however, questions about the validity of MTurk data persist. Amazon classifies all MTurk Workers into two types: (1) “regular” Workers, and (2) more qualified (and expensive) “master” Workers. In this paper, we evaluate how choice in Worker type impacts the nature of research samples in terms of characteristics/features and performance. Our results identify few meaningful differences between master and regular Workers. However, we do find that master Workers are more likely to be female, older, and Republican, than regular Workers. Additionally, master Workers have far more experience, having spent twice as much time working on MTurk and having completed over seven times the number of assignments. Based on these findings, we recommend that researchers ask for Worker status and number of assignments completed to control for effects related to experience. However, the results imply that budget-conscious scholars will not compromise project integrity by using the wider pool of regular Workers in academic studies.

Paying Outsourced Labor: Direct Evidence from Linked Temp Agency-Worker-Client Data

Abstract We estimate how much firms differentiate pay premia between regular and outsourced workers in temp agency work arrangements. We leverage unique Argentinian administrative data that feature links between user firms (the workplaces where temp workers perform their labor) and temp agencies (their formal employers). We estimate that a high-wage user firm that pays a regular worker a 10% premium pays a temp worker on average only a 4.9% premium, compared to what these workers would earn in a low-wage user firm in their respective work arrangements—the midpoint between the benchmarks for insiders (one) and the competitive spot-labor market (zero).

Association between sleep duration and impaired fasting glucose according to work type in non-regular workers: data from the first and second year (2016, 2017) of the 7th Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination (KNHANE) (a cross-sectional study).

BackgroundWe aimed to find the relationship between sleep duration and impaired fasting glucose according to working type in non-regular workers using the 2016 and 2017 Korean National Health And Nutrition Examination (KNHANE, 7th revision).MethodIn the 1st and 2nd year (2016, 2017) of the 7th KNHANE, 16,277 people participated. Minors were excluded because this study was intended for individuals aged 19 years and older. As this study was based on wage workers, unemployment, self-employed workers, employers, unpaid family workers, and those who have insufficient answers such as unknown or no response were excluded. Regular workers were excluded because this study was intended for non-regular workers. Finally, a total of 2,168 people were included in the survey, except those who had been diagnosed with diabetes, had a fasting blood glucose level of 126 mg/dL or higher, or taking hypoglycemic agents or receiving insulin injections. To find the relationship between sleep duration and impaired fasting glucose according to work type in non-regular workers, multiple logistic regression analysis was performed by adjusting the general and occupational characteristics after stratification according to work type. All statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software (version 26.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).ResultsIn the case of insufficient sleep duration in irregular female workers, the odds ratio (OR) of impaired fasting glucose was statistically insignificant, but in the case of insufficient sleep duration in irregular male workers who have shift work, the odds ratio (OR) of impaired fasting glucose was significantly higher than that of sufficient sleep duration (Model 1, OR: 3.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18–7.90; Model 2, OR: 2.81, 95% CI: 1.08–7.29).ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that insufficient sleep duration was associated with an increase in fasting blood glucose levels in non-regular male workers working shifts. This means that non-regular workers are in desperate need for adequate sleep and health care. We hope that our study will help improve the health of non-regular workers and more systematic and prospective follow-up studies will be conducted to further improve the health of non-regular workers.