Safety Sector Research Articles

Managing Job Stress in the Netherlands

Compared with other countries, in the Netherlands work pressure and sickness absenteeism and work incapacitation rates due to work-related mental health problems are quite high. About a decade ago a new Working Conditions Act (WCA) was introduced that had far-reaching consequences for the way job stress is dealt with in organizations. The WCA emphasizes the central role to be played by commercially operating Occupational Health and Safety Services (OHSSs), and it defines a new kind of professional—the Work & Organizational Expert—who is primarily responsible for the assessment and prevention of job stress. Recently, a number of instruments have been developed for psychosocial risk assessment that are now widely used on a regular basis in a way prescribed by the WCA. Preventive measures are increasingly taken by organizations in order to reduce job stress and sickness absenteeism. Based on the Dutch approach some lessons may be learned. Recommendations pertain to (1) the role of government, (2) legal recognition of psychosocial work factors, (3) the privatization of the occupational health and safety sector, and (4) evaluation of job stress prevention programs.

Consumer affairs and the valuation of safety

An appraisal of past work on the value of a statistical life has been conducted for the purpose of assisting decisions in the consumer safety sector. Although contingent valuation is nowadays often cited as the preferred approach for valuing the dominant, human cost, element of safety, a range of other valuation techniques is recognised and used, both in Britain and elsewhere. It is argued that all valuation techniques entail considerable uncertainty for a variety of reasons, some methodological and some attributable to the fact that the value of safety is an ill-defined and fuzzy concept for the individual. In view of this, plus the need to appeal to a diverse constituency, it is proposed that the value of consumer safety be based upon a broad appreciation of the outcomes from the various techniques which exist, rather than pinning all hopes upon any single methodology. Furthermore, in the interests of sound consumer risk management practice and public credibility, it is recommended that uncertainty be openly acknowledged by expressing the value of safety as a range rather than a point value. The range proposed is from £1 million to £10 million, with the expectation that for most consumer applications values used might lie within a narrower bandwidth from about £2 million to £4 million. It is suggested that the specification of a range, while not everyone’s nor every sector’s preferred approach, nonetheless has a number of useful attributes. These include endowing decision makers with a degree of flexibility in arriving at safety decisions, considered to be an important issue within the consumer safety sphere where complex contextual factors frequently arise, and which are arguably best handled by a thoughtful and sensitive approach and negotiation, rather than by the application of any more formulaic recipe.

Carbon monoxide fatalities in medicolegal autopsies.

All post-mortem medicolegal reports issued by Jordan University Hospital (JUH) during the period 1978-96 were reviewed. Carbon monoxide (CO) as a silent killer was responsible for 31.5% (n = 110) of poisoning fatalities. These were due to unintentional exposure to CO sources in confined spaces (bedrooms (24.6%), worker lodgings (23.6%) and bathrooms (16.4%), and without the victims being aware of CO hazards. Sixty-five per cent of CO fatalities occurred during December to February and 30% of the cases involved the age group 20-29 years, followed by the age group 30-39 years (20%). Non-Jordanians constituted 50% of CO fatalities and Egyptian workers accounted for 78%. Being unaccustomed to cold climates, and on low incomes, they had been using simple and unsafe heating devices. Many of these deaths could have been prevented. Safety educational campaigns to increase awareness of the general population of CO sources, their hazards and how to avoid them should be held continuously during the cold months of the year. All health and safety sectors are advised to be involved.

Why Some Communities Pay More than Others? The Example of Illinois Teachers

Increased labor costs for salaries and fringe benefits is one of the budgeting consequences of growth in the employment levels of state and local governments.(1) Little research, however, determines what causes high or low public sector salaries. Using teacher salaries from Illinois school districts (Fiscal Year 1989-90) as an example, this article investigates determinants of public sector salaries from three perspectives: local characteristics of the school districts, the ability of citizens and communities to pay, and composition of the property tax base. The study compares the determinants of teacher salaries using four salary levels: entry level, average, maximum salaries, and a benefit package of average salary plus district hospitalization costs. Teachers are good examples of public employees for two reasons; first, they are highly visible public employees, and second, schools rely heavily on local revenue sources. The issue of teacher visibility is closely related to the fact that school districts rely on property taxation as a primary revenue source. While other local governments also depend on property taxes, school revenue is more prominent because of the salience of education funding, the conspicuousness of school buildings, and the presence of education tax-raising referenda in local elections. It is because tax affordability is an issue that teachers and their salaries become far more visible than other public employees. Teachers are a reasonable group to study also because states have central agencies that collect data on the salaries of teachers in all districts and the data are open to the public and relatively easy to use. Teachers my be a more visible example of all people receiving public salaries at the local level. Literature Review The effect of unionism dominates the literature regarding determinants of public salaries. Two seminal studies review much of the literature available through the early 1980s regarding determinants of teacher salaries but most works that they include focus on a single variable, unionism. Lipsky (1982) reviews the prominent literature on the effects of collective bargaining on teacher pay, while Freeman (19 86) examines a variety of public professions. More recent studies also focus on unionism and teacher salaries (Zuelke, Hill, and Franzoia, 1987; Easton, 1988; Silva, 1988; Walsh and Witney, 1988; Baldwin, 1989; Hundley, 1993; Orzechowski and Marlow, 1995; Zwerling and Thomason, 1995; Babcock and Engberg, 1997). Chandler (1994) correlates unionism with the salary of sanitation workers, Schwartz-Miller and Talley, (1995) with transit workers, whereas Jennings and Borrelli (1994) examine the effects of municipal policies and administrative choices on salaries in the public safety sector. Some literature discusses the effects of fiscal stress, ability to pay, or the property tax base on the costs of local governments (Bradbum 1982; Ladd and Yinger, 1989; Rubin, 1990; Chicoine, 1991). Only a few studies, however, apply these effects to school districts (Weber, 1980; Freeman, 1986; Ward and Fackender, 1987). The literature search identifies two problems: identifying the appropriate dependent variables and specifying the appropriate independent variables while minimizing the effects of multilinearity. This research summarizes the findings of the previous literature including that of fiscal stress, ability to pay, and property taxation into one model of salary prediction. Dependent Variables At the school district level, the teacher salary schedules are usually assembled into a matrix of different lanes where any teacher's salary is determined by years of teaching experience and level of education. The average school district has numerous measures of salary levels available. The problem 'is apparent: which measure should be studied? The literature reports the use of an array of dependent variables: Silva (1988), entry-level salaries; Zwerling and Thomason (1995), the lowest and highest salaries in school districts; Lipsky (1982), average salaries; and Delaney (1985) and Gallagher (1978), a group of several measures ranging from the lowest to highest salaries on salary schedules. …

Explaining Salary Levels in the Public Safety Sector

Explaining Salary Levels in the Public Safety Sector

Attitudes to food and nutrition policy from five different sectors in Australia

This study attempted to examine the views of representatives of five sectors of the Australian food and nutrition system about ways in which consumers' nutrition status can be strengthened. The study was conducted in two stages: stage one was in the form of a postal Delphi survey in which 56 representatives drawn from the farming, food processing, regulatory, food safety and nutrition sectors were asked to suggest ways to improve the Australian food sytem. These results were summarised in the form of a short 64 item opinion statement inventory. In stage two this was completed (via postal administration) by 253 representatives from the same five sectors. The findings show that there was widespread support for policy proposals to do with education and enforcement of current regulations. However, there were also major differences between the groups. Multidimensional scaling and discriminant analytic approaches showed that food processors and regulators tended to hold views supportive of the present status quo, whereas nutritionists and, to a lesser extent, farmers and food safety personnel supported changes to the system. The possible causes of these differences are discussed along with the implications of the findings for the implementation of the Australian food and nutrition policy.

Job performance testing

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act has raised the issue of Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications for employment in the public safety sector. Complicating the issue is the number of lawsuits filed for violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Physical performance testing as an alternative to arbitrary age limitations is considered for physically demanding tasks in fire fighting, law enforcement, and the military. Tests with criterion-related validity are presented that are useful for screening new applicants and for periodic re-evaluation of incumbents. Extensive testing in our laboratory, in concert with the literature review, support the observation that age is a poor predictor of performance across the full range of employment years. It is concluded that individuals who are otherwise healthy, with proper attention to their lifestyles, can develop and maintain the necessary physiological profile to successfully execute the duties of physically demanding jobs well into their advancing years.

General Overview of the Causative Agents of Foodborne Illness

This is one in a series of facts sheets targeting the retail and processing sector of food safety. This document is FSHN033, one of a series of the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, IFAS, University of Florida. Publication: February 2003. 
 FSHN033/FS099: General Overview of the Causative Agents of Foodborne Illness (ufl.edu)