Unskilled Construction Workers Research Articles

Italy and the Little Divergence in Wages and Prices: New Data, New Results

We present new wage indices for skilled and unskilled construction workers in Italy. Our data avoid multiple issues pestering earlier wages, making our new indices the first consistent ones for early-modern Italy. Our improved wages, obtained from the St. Peter’s Church in Rome, consolidate the view that urban Italy began a prolonged downturn during the seventeenth century. They also offer sustenance to the idea that epidemics instigated the decline. Comparison with new construction wages for London shows that Roman workers outearned their early-modern English counterparts. This suggests that high wages alone were not enough to trigger industrialization.

Cheap and Efficient? Chinese Migrant Workers and Japanese Policies in Colonial Korea, 1920s–1930s

This study examines how Japanese colonial policies and the foreign exchange market conditioned unskilled Chinese construction workers to dominate the Korean construction labor market during the 1920s and the 1930s. The dominance of Chinese laborers in construction was the main cause of conflicts between the two ethnic groups in colonial Korea that often erupted as a series of anti-Chinese riots, culminating in the 1931 Pyongyang massacre of Chinese immigrants. Past studies simply attributed the Chinese dominance to high efficiency and low labor costs and as purely a result of the labor market. However, this article concludes that efficiency of the Chinese laborers in Korea was facilitated by Japan’s ethnic division of the labor markets within the Japanese empire. The imperial Japanese authority allowed Koreans, as colonial subjects, to travel and find jobs at the construction sites of mainland Japan, while Chinese laborers could only move to colonial Korea. Strict restrictions were placed on the Chinese who wanted to work in mainland Japan. As a result, massive numbers of Korean laborers, who were considered desirable workers, migrated to Japan hoping to earn higher wages and leaving a less efficient labor pool to compete with the Chinese in Korea. The dominance of Chinese laborers at Korean construction sites was a byproduct of Japanese colonial policy and international economic circumstances.

Real Wages of Lithuanian Construction Workers from 1913 to 1939 (Measured in Subsistence and Welfare Ratios) in a Cross-National Comparison

This article provides two comparisons: (1) a cross-time comparison of real wages of skilled and unskilled workers in Kaunas before the First World War and during the interwar period; and (2) a cross-national quantitative comparison of the wages of unskilled workers in Kaunas and the capital cities of most European countries during the same period. For the second comparison, we use the findings of researchers who applied Robert C. Allen’s methodology of real wage estimation. In this methodology, the wages of unskilled construction workers (known in interwar Lithuania as zimagoras) are used as proxies for the wages of unskilled urban workers, and those of construction site carpenters provide a sample for skilled workers’ wages. Real wages are measured in subsistence and welfare ratios, indicating the distances separating the purchasing power of wages from the subsistence level of a single worker (subsistence ratio = 1 meaning absolute poverty) or his family (welfare ratio = 1 meaning absolute poverty). Subsistence or absolute poverty levels are defined by regionally adjusted (to variations in survival needs) minimum consumption baskets. The main findings are: (1) although during the first decade of independence (in the 1920s) the real wages of unskilled construction workers in Kaunas were lower than in 1913, by 1938 they had markedly surpassed the pre-First World War level; (2) in no year with available data did the real wages of unskilled construction workers in Kaunas fall below the absolute poverty level; (3) the real wages of skilled construction workers in Kaunas had markedly surpassed the pre-First World War level even before the Great Depression in the early 1930s, and remained above this level even in the worst years of the depression; (4) the real wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in Kaunas in 1913 were no lower than in metropolitan centres of the Russian Empire; (5) in the period 1927 to 1929, the wages of unskilled construction workers in Kaunas were lower than in Moscow, but largely surpassed Russian wages in the 1930s, when Stalin’s policy of industrialisation forced them below the subsistence level; (6) the real wages of unskilled construction workers in Kaunas in the 1930s surpassed those in Riga and Tallinn. While this finding is surprising, it concurs with earlier (2007) findings by Gediminas Vaskela, who compared the mean wages of workers and employees in the Baltic countries in the period 1938 to 1940.

Workforce development: understanding task-level job demands-resources, burnout, and performance in unskilled construction workers

This study examines how task demands and personal resources affect unskilled construction worker productivity and safety performance. It extends the job demands-resources (JD-R) burnout model to show how job characteristics interact with burnout to influence performance. A modified model was designed to measure burnout, with exhaustion and disengagement among unskilled construction workers taken into consideration. An observational study was conducted in a laboratory environment to test the research hypotheses and assess the prediction accuracies of outcome constructs. Twenty-two subjects participated in multiple experiments designed to expose them to varying levels of task-demands and to record their personal resources as they performed common construction material-handling tasks. Specifically, both surveys and physiological measurements using wearable sensors were used to operationalize the model constructs. Moreover, partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to analyze data collected at the task and individual levels. Exhaustion and disengagement exhibited different relationships with productivity and safety performance outcomes as measured by unit rate productivity and ergonomic behavior, respectively. Subjects with high burnout and high engagement showed high productivity but low safety performance. Thus, exhausted workers stand a greater chance of failing to comply with safety. As the sample and the task performed in the experiment do not cover the experience and trade of all construction workers, our findings are limited in their application to entry-level and unskilled workers, whose work is mainly manual material-handling tasks.

The rise of the middle class: the income gap between salaried employees and workers in Sweden, ca. 1830–1940

ABSTRACTWe present the first comprehensive, long run salary information on Swedish middle-class employees before the twentieth century. Our data include, for instance, school teachers, professors, clerks, policemen and janitors in Stockholm and Sweden, ca. 1830–1940. We use the new data to compare the annual earnings of these middle-class employees with the annual earnings of farm workers, unskilled construction workers and manufacturing workers. The results show that the income gap between the middle class and the working class widen drastically from the mid-nineteenth century to a historically high level during the 1880s and 1890s. The differentials then decreased during the first four decades of the twentieth century. The bulging earnings advantage of middle-class employees vis-à-vis unskilled workers chimes with Kocka’s depiction of the latter half of the nineteenth century as the era of the bourgeoisie.

ความสัมพันธ์เชิงสาเหตุของปัจจัยจิตลักษณะและสถานการณ์ในการทำงานที่ส่งผลต่อพฤติกรรมป้องกันอันตรายจากการทำงาน ประเภทก่อสร้างของแรงงานไทย (The Causal Relationship of Psychological Factor and Work Condition Influence to Self-Protective Behavior in Construction Type of Thai Workers)

Thai Abstract: การวจยมวตถประสงค 1) ศก ษาสภาพการณ ปจ จย ตว ชว ด พฤตก รรมปองกน อน ตรายจากการทางาน 2) วเคราะหตรวจสอบความสอดคลอ งแบบจาลองความสม พน ธเ ชง สาเหตพฤตก รรมปองกน อน ตรายจากการทางาน ทผวจยสรางขนกบขอมลเชงประจกษ กลมตวอยาง คอ แรงงานกอสรางระดบไรฝมอ กรงเทพมหานครและปรมณฑล ตวแปร ไดแกพฤตก รรมปองกน อน ตรายจากการทางาน การรบ รค วามสามารถของตนเอง ความมเ หตมผ ล การรบ รค วามเสย งสภาพการท างาน เกบขอมลโดยใชแบบสอบถามทผานการตรวจสอบความเทยงตรงเชงเนอหา (IOC) อ านาจจ าแนก ความเชอมน ความเทยงตรงเชงโครงสราง องคประกอบเชงยนยน อทธพลทางตรง ทางออม ทางรวม และความสอดคลองกบขอมลเชงประจกษ ผลวจยพบวา แบบจ าลองความสมพนธเชงสาเหตมความสอดคลองกบขอมลเชงประจกษ โดยมคาสถตไค-สแควร ไมมนยส าคญทางสถตทระดบ 0.05 คาสถตไค-สแควรตอองศาความเปนอสระมากกวา 2 (  2 442.07, df = 233, P-value = 0.00) คาดชนรากก าลงสองเฉลยของคาความแตกตางโดยประมาณ (RMSEA) มคาเทากบ 0.05 คาดชนวดระดบความกลมกลน (GFI) เทากบ 0.92 ดชนวดระดบความกลมกลนทปรบแกแลว (AGFI)เทากบ 0.89 สรปวา ดชนสอดคลองกบขอมลเชงประจกษ ดงนนผวจยจงไมมการปรบสมการโครงสราง ตวแปรพฤตกรรมปองกน อน ตรายจากการทางานไดรบ อท ธพลทางตรงมากทสดจากตวแปรเจตคตตอพฤตกรรมปองกนอนตรายจากการท างาน และไดรบอทธพลทางออมจากตวแปรการรบรความเสยงสภาพการท างาน English Abstract: In this research, the researcher investigates 1) condition and factors of self-protective behavior and constructs 2) a causal relationship model for the purpose of analyzing the causal relationship on the selfprotective behavior and ascertains the validity of the model by testing the goodness of fit between the model and pertinent empirical data. The sample populations were unskilled construction workers who worked in Bangkok metropolitan region. There are five latent variables, viz., self-protective behavior, perceived selfefficacy, reasonableness, perceived risk in work condition. Data were collected using a questionnaire tested for content validity. The item-objective congruence index (IOC), discrimination and reliability. Construct validity was confirmed by an application of confirmatory factor analysis and analyses were conducted yielding direct, indirect and total effects and the model congruence with empirical data. The research results indicated that the model exhibited congruence with empirical data. Goodness of fit measures was found to be:2 is statistically insignificant level at p = 0.05; degrees of freedom were less than 2 (2 =442.07, df = 233, P-value= 0.00); root mean square error of approximation (RMSEM) = 0.05; goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.92; adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) =0.89. The certain indices exhibited congruence with the empirical data. Therefore, the researcher did not adjust the structural equation of the research hypotheses. The variable of self-protective behaviors received direct influence at the highest level from the variable of attitudes towards behaviors and received indirect influence from the variable of the perceived risk of the work conditions

Directly alcohol-attributable mortality by industry and occupation in a Spanish Census cohort of economically active population

AimsTo assess disparities in directly alcohol-attributable (DAA) mortality by industry/occupation in Spain during 2002–2011 and the contribution of different socio-demographic factors, including socioeconomic position, to explain such disparity. MethodsNationwide cohort study covering 16 million economically active people living in Spain in 2001. Deaths at age 25–64 were analyzed. Subjects were classified by employment status, industry and occupation at baseline. Poisson regression models were built, calculating rate ratios (RRs) compared to all employees or those in the education sector. ResultsDAA mortality was much higher in the unemployed than in employees (Crude RR: 2.4; 95% CI: 2.3–2.6) and varied widely across industries/occupations. Crude RRs>3.0 (p<0.05) compared to teachers were found in employees in extractive industries/fishing, agriculture/livestock, construction, catering/accommodation and protective services. Socio-demographic factors, especially age, gender and educational attainment contributed more to explain risk disparities than other factors or potential selection bias. However, after exhaustive sociodemographic adjustment, including education attainment and material wealth, a RR>1.33 (p<0.05) remained in unemployed, catering/accommodation employees and unskilled construction workers. RRs were significantly larger in women than men (p<0.05) among mineworkers/fishworkers/sailors (RR=8.6 vs. 1.2) and drivers (RR=3.7 vs. 1.0). ConclusionsThe results could be extrapolated to all alcohol-attributable mortality since disparities for other strongly alcohol-related deaths, although smaller, were in the same direction. Given the wide occupational disparities in alcohol-attributable mortality, implementation of special measures to reduce this mortality in the highest risk groups is fully justified. Future research should better characterize the explanatory factors of disparities and their role in the causal chain.

Acidentes de trabalho graves e atividades produtivas nas regiões administrativas de saúde em Pernambuco: uma análise a partir da identificação de aglomerados produtivos locais

Resumo Introdução: Pernambuco passa por transformações que atraem empreendimentos e mão de obra. Objetivo: verificar como as concentrações produtivas estabelecidas nas Regiões Administrativas de Saúde do estado interferiram no perfil e distribuição dos acidentes de trabalho graves no período de 2011 a 2013. Método: utilizou-se o Quociente Locacional para identificar a formação de aglomerados produtivos especializados nas Regiões de Saúde e compará-los com a ocorrência de acidentes graves. Resultados: os mais acidentados foram homens (89,7%) na faixa de 30 a 44 anos. Foram identificados aglomerados produtivos especializados em seis Regiões de Saúde, porém as ocupações com mais registros de acidentes graves foram trabalhador agropecuário (15,4%), pedreiro (8,7%) e servente de obras (4,0%), mesmo onde a atividade agropecuária e a construção civil não representavam o principal setor produtivo. Conclusão: a identificação de aglomerados produtivos possibilitou a compreensão do padrão de organização produtiva no estado, bem como o perfil de trabalhadores acidentados em cada região, permitindo evidenciar os setores produtivos e ocupações prioritárias para a estruturação da vigilância em saúde do trabalhador.

Elevated blood lead levels among unskilled construction workers in Jimma, Ethiopia

BackgroundNo study has been carried out to assess the blood lead levels of workers or the contribution of common workplace practices to lead exposure in Ethiopia. This study was carried out to assess the blood lead levels of female and male laborers in the construction sector in Jimma town, Ethiopia.MethodA cross-sectional study on the blood lead levels of 45 construction workers was carried out in the town of Jimma. The t-test, analysis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis, Mann–Whitney and odds ratio tests were used to compare mean blood lead levels and to investigate the associations between specific job type, use of self-protection device, sex, service years and occurrence of non-specific symptoms with BLLs.ResultsThe mean blood lead level of the exposed group (40.03 ± 10.41 μg/dL) was found to be significantly greater than that of the unexposed group (29.81 ± 10.21 μg/dL), p = 0.05. Among the exposed group female workers were found to have higher mean blood lead level (42.04 ± 4.11 μg/dL) than their male colleagues (33.99 ± 3.28 μg/dL). Laborers who were regularly using self-protection devices were found to have significantly lower blood lead levels than those who were not using.ConclusionThe blood lead levels of construction workers in Jimma town are considerably high with a range of 20.46 – 70.46 μg/dL and the workers are in danger of imminent lead toxicity. More endangered are female construction workers who are bearers of the future children of the country and the issue requires urgent attention.

Jezebels and Victims: Antillean Women in Postwar France, 1946–1974

This article demonstrates that in the post–World War II period the bodies of Guadeloupean and Martinican women served as a tool to implement new French “development” policies affecting Guadeloupe and Martinique. Immigration officials hoped to improve the women's socioeconomic conditions by encouraging them to migrate to France where they could earn higher wages. By contrast, the women's bodies became a battlefield for Caribbean male nationalists, who appropriated their experiences for political reasons. On both sides, however, the paradoxes were striking. French officials treated Antillean women in a manner that contradicted the national republican values of universal equality, and the Antillean nationalists politicized the migration of Antillean women to France as a way of dealing with the emasculating effects of neocolonial relations. Après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, les Guadeloupéennes et Martiniquaises furent, à leur insu, mêlées à la politique française de développement des nouveaux départements d'Outre-Mer. En encourageant un courant d'immigration vers la « métropole », où les Antillaises avaient la possibilité de gagner leur vie plus facilement, les agents de l'état français désiraient améliorer la situation socioéconomique de ces femmes ainsi que celle des départements. Cependant, les Antillaises jouaient un rôle assez important dans la politique nationaliste locale. Les indépendantistes, alors majoritairement des hommes, utilisaient l'expérience féminine pour protester contre la politique d'immigration et affirmer leurs droits nationaux. Néanmoins, les paradoxes étaient évidents dans la politique respective de chaque camp. L'état français trahissait ses valeurs républicaines, et l'opposition indépendantiste était symptomatique d'un nationalisme ultra-masculin.

The skill premium and the 'Great Divergence'

This article analyses the long-term development of the skill premium in western Europe in a global perspective, on the basis of data on wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in more than a dozen European countries and regions, and in a number of non-European countries such as India, China, Japan, Russia, Korea and Indonesia. It shows that already in the late medieval period the skill premium in western Europe had fallen sharply and became, from the fifteenth century onwards, much lower than in most other parts of the world economy. Only in southern China, and perhaps also in nineteenth-century Japan, did the skill premium fall to an equally low level. The explanation for these global patterns focuses on factor proportions, the quality of institutions and demand-related factors. Moreover, it is argued that the skill premium measured in this way is also a predictor of long-term economic performance.

Análisis de los mecanismos de producción de las lesiones leves por accidentes de trabajo en la construcción en España

ObjectivesThe construction industry produces the highest number of occupational injuries in Spain (25.6%). Of these, 98.5% were minor injuries with 5 million workdays lost in 2000. This occurred even after the recent introduction of numerous health and occupational safety regulations. The objective of the present study was to identify the specific mechanisms of minor occupational injuries in the construction sector. MethodsIn 2000, there were 235,853 minor occupational injuries in the construction industry. From these, injuries in «general construction and civil engineering» were selected (n = 155,044). These injuries affected both the total number of workers in the sector as well as bricklayers and unskilled construction workers. «Insurance and financial activities» (n = 2,019) were selected as a reference economic sector. Minor occupational injuries due to nontraumatic processes (heart attack, etc.) were taken as a control group (n = 167), assuming that the risk of nontraumatic processes was independent of economic activities. Odds ratios (OR) were adjusted by age, sex, years of work experience, type of employment and company size through nonconditional logistic regression models. ResultsThe mechanisms with the highest risk of minor occupational lesions in construction workers as a group compared with employees in the financial sector were projection of fragments (OR = 33.0; 95% CI, 15.3-70.8) and being struck by objects (OR = 18.2; CI 95%, 9.7-34.1). These were also the most specific mechanisms of injury in the subgroup of bricklayers and unskilled construction workers. ConclusionsActivities aimed at preventing minor occupational injuries in the construction sector should be orientated towards these mechanisms, especially projection of fragments despite the low frequency of this mechanism compared with that of other mechanisms. Case-control design is a useful alternative approach for research into occupational injuries.

REAL WAGES AND STANDARDS OF LIVING IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1489–1914

Utilizing a large volume of archival documents, this study establishes for the first time the long-term trends in real wages of skilled and unskilled construction workers in Istanbul and other Ottoman cities in southeastern Europe and the Middle East, from the second half of the fifteenth century until World War I. A detailed consumer price index and nominal wage indices are constructed for the city of Istanbul for this purpose. These price and wage series are then inserted into a larger framework of price and wage trends in European cities during the same period.

Occupational and environmental hazards associated with lung cancer.

In a hospital-based case-control study 194 lung cancer cases, 194 hospital controls, and 194 population controls were interviewed for their smoking, occupational, and residential history by trained interviewers, using a standardized questionnaire. In order to include many different environmental exposures, case ascertainment took place in seven different hospitals with catchment areas ranging from rural to highly industrialized. Lung cancer risk strongly increases with cumulative cigarette dose, reaching an odds ratio (OR) of 16.19 (95% confidence limits (CL): 5.10, 51.33) for male smokers of more than 40 pack-years and an OR of 19.99 (95% CL: 4.98, 80.24) for female smokers of more than 20 pack-years. For the quantification of occupational exposure to known carcinogens of the lung a novel approach was developed which accumulates exposure information obtained by supplemental questionnaires through an automatic procedure. The OR for the highest exposure group in males was 2.7 (95% CL: 1.23, 5.78). Significantly increased risks were observed in the metal industry, particularly in smelter and foundry workers (OR 4.8, 95% CL: 1.15, 20.16) and in turners (OR 2.2, 95% CL: 1.05, 4.75). In the construction industry the risks were particularly high in road construction workers (OR 3.7, 95% CL: 1.06, 13.20) and in unskilled construction workers (OR 2.7, 95% CL: 1.24, 5.76). The risks in these occupational groups increased with duration and with latency. Quantification of air pollution was done on a county basis by time period. An index based on emission data for sulphur dioxide was compared to a semiquantitative index, which included additional information on ambient air pollution. After adjustment for smoking and occupational exposures an OR of 1.01 (95% CL: 0.53, 1.91) for an emission index and of 1.16 (95% CL: 0.64, 2.13) for a semiquantitative index was obtained.

Population Movement, Labor Force Absorption, and Urbanization in China

Concern in China with problems of rural-urban population distribution, rates of urban growth, and relations between employment opportunities and rural and urban development have resulted in a firmly articulated policy regarding population movement. Permanent movement from rural to urban places and from smaller to larger urban places is strictly controlled. Yet the pressures of a large surplus labor force and the introduction of the new economic responsibility system have led to a substantial increase in population mobility, most of it temporary. Such circulation has become a major mechanism to allow rural areas to cope with their surplus labor and to raise rural standards of living. It has also allowed urban places to gain the skilled service workers and unskilled construction workers that are in short supply without putting undue pressure on urban facilities.