Vulnerable Workers Research Articles

Should health care institutions provide job accommodations for health care workers with serious mental health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic?

As the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic continues, increased attention has been given to its mental health impacts on frontline health care workers. There is a consensus, consistent with established standards applicable to the duty to treat, that health care workers who are especially vulnerable to risk of physical harm should be provided job accommodations to reduce their risk of disease exposure, but it is unclear whether health care workers should be provided similar accommodations if their vulnerability relates specifically to mental health concerns. Especially given emerging evidence that the pandemic is taking a heavy toll on the mental health of health care workers, this issue should be included in policy conversations involving support of health care workers and provision of resources to them during the pandemic. Arguments in favor of expanding accommodations to those with mental health concerns include institutions’ ethical duty to protect vulnerable workers and not discriminate against their employees, as well as broader consideration of the consequences of not providing accommodations, both for health care workers and patients.

COVID-19 Guidelines to Protect Healthcare Workers at Hospitals and Dental Professionals at Dental Office.

Coronavirus disease 2019 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. This study aimed to address the preventive procedures to protect healthcare workers at hospital to avoid COVID-19, and infection control procedures to protect dental professionals in dental office. We conducted a search of published articles from PubMed, google scholar databases using key words such as COVID-19, healthcare worker, infection control, and dental practice. Relevant articles were identified and reviewed. Most published papers were clinical reports and case studies. We have selected some of the current published papers written in English in 2020. Infection control procedures to protect health workers at hospitals, and dental professionals at dental office were summurised and presented. Infection control procedures for healthcare workers at hospitals include Personal protective equipment, Korea filter (KF)94 respirator, goggles, face protector, disposable waterproof long-arm gown, and gloves, and others. Extra-protection procedures should be taken with old and vulnerable healthcare workers. Dental professionals should evaluate patients in advance before starting dental treatment. Aerosols generating procedures should be avoided and personal protective equipment should be used. Dental treatment should be restricted to emergency cases only. Old medical staff should be in safer distance to avoid infection, but young physicians and nurses should work at frontline as their immunity is better than their colleagues at old age. Screening patients and measurement of the body temperature are essential measures before dental treatment.

Contextual reflections on COVID-19 and informal workers in Nigeria

PurposeThe index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was reported on 27 February 2020. Subsequently, the exponential increase in cases has brought about the partial and total lockdown of cities, the closure of all schools and the shutdown of government offices in order to curtail the spread of COVID-19. COVID-19 and its subsequent drastic curtailment policies have implications on vulnerable groups, especially, informal workers who constitute about 70% of the active working population in Nigeria. This reflective discourse critically engages the plight of informal workers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe research was guided by the epistemology of pandemic interpretationism. It engages contextual reflections of the plight of economically vulnerable informal workers in Nigeria. Data were collected from secondary sources while rapid case studies were conducted with ten informal workers in Lagos and Ibadan. Afterwards, data were contextually analysed.FindingsEconomically vulnerable informal workers in Nigeria have contextually interpreted COVID-19 as an elite disease, imported into Nigeria by the wealthy. In addition, the mass population views COVID-19 containment measures such as lockdowns, movement restrictions and stay-at-home orders as elitist policies, which are aimed at protecting the wealthy and frustrating the poor and economically vulnerable who live on the fringes of poverty. Many informal workers have slipped below the poverty line while struggling to supply livelihood needs, as they were unable to earn daily income and cannot access palliatives. Consequently, they are of the opinion that “Hunger Virus is deadlier than Corona Virus”.Originality/valueThis paper is a contextual reflection on the plight of economically vulnerable informal workers during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and movement restrictions in Nigeria. It presents pandemic interpretationism as an epistemological guide and reflectively examines the poverty impact of COVID-19 on the Nigerian informal sector via contextual analyses of secondary data and rapid case studies. The paper uncovers various COVID-19 livelihood experiences and the responses of the informal workers; furthermore, it provides policy recommendations.

Providing a foundation for decent work and adequate income during health and economic crises: constitutional approaches in 193 countries

PurposeAs coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads globally, the economic and health consequences are disproportionately affecting marginalized workers. However, countries' existing labor and social security laws often exclude the most vulnerable workers from coverage, exacerbating existing inequalities. Guaranteeing the rights to adequate income even when ill, decent working conditions and nondiscrimination in constitutions may provide a foundation for protecting rights universally, safeguarding against counterproductive austerity measures, and providing a normative foundation for equality and inclusion as economies recover. The purpose of this article is to examine the prevalence of these rights globally and assess some of their early impacts amid the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors created and analyzed a database of constitutional rights for all 193 United Nations member states. All constitutions were double coded by an international multidisciplinary, multilingual team of researchers.FindingsThis study finds that 54% of countries take some approach to guaranteeing income security in their constitutions, including 23% that guarantee income security during illness. Thirty-one percent guarantee the right to safe working conditions. Only 36% of constitutions explicitly guarantee at least some aspect of nondiscrimination at work. With respect to equal rights broadly, constitutional protections are most common on the basis of sex (85%), followed by religion (78%), race/ethnicity (76%), socioeconomic status (59%), disability (27%), citizenship (22%), sexual orientation (5%) and gender identity (3%). Across almost all areas, protections for rights are far more common in constitutions adopted more recently.Originality/valueThis is the first study to systematically examine protections for income security and decent work, together with nondiscrimination, in the constitutions of all 193 UN member states.

Decent Work: Representations and Prospects of Work Among Vulnerable Young Argentine Workers

Argentina’s labor market conditions hinder the possibilities for social integration and the securing of decent work. This particularly affects vulnerable emerging adults without a high school diploma. This study aims to understand the meanings of work in general, actual work experiences, and expectations for the future of young urban unskilled workers with no high school diploma. Using a qualitative approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 men and women, and an inductive content thematic analysis was carried out. The main results show that (1) there is acceptance and resignation of highly precarious working conditions due to the unstable general context and the lack of quality employment, (2) there is a distinction between work and personal interests, and (3) future prospects are presented as a “crossroads” between your expectations and the options available. All this affects the meanings of work, the future, and therefore affects their well-being and identity construction.

Accounting's role in resisting wage theft: a labour process theory analysis

PurposeIn 2015, one university student in KC – a small town in regional Australia – unknowingly launched a resistance movement and national debate on modern wage theft. We apply labour process theory to analyse accounting's role in this case.Design/methodology/approachWe study multiple instances of wage theft in one Australian town. This case site reveals how wage theft can emerge in a developed economy with well-established legal and institutional constraints. We use Thompson's “core” labour process theory to analyse accounting's role via two interrelated dialectics: (1) structure and agency and, (2) control and resistance.FindingsAccounting was “weaponised” by both sides of the controversy: as a tool of employer control and as a vehicle for student resistance. Digital technologies enabled employee resistance to form unconsciously and organically. Proponents mobilised informally, with information and accounting the ammunition.Social implicationsWage theft affects industrialised as well as developing economies, especially “precarious” workers. We show how accounting can conceal exploitation, but also how – with the right support – accounting can help vulnerable workers enforce their rights and entitlements.Originality/valueThe paper uncovers novel dynamics of exploitation and resistance at work under contemporary economic and technological conditions. Labour process theory can provide a more dialectical perspective on accounting's role in these dynamics, including the emancipatory potential of informal and opportunistic counter-accounts.

Do minimum wages reduce employment in developing countries? A survey and exploration of conflicting evidence

Evidence from studies of the employment effects of minimum wages in developing countries is mixed. One interpretation is that there is simply no clear evidence of disemployment effects in developing countries. Instead, however, we find evidence that the heterogeneity is systematic, with estimated effects more consistently negative in studies with relatively more features for which institutional factors and the competitive model more strongly predict negative effects. These features include whether studies: (i) focus on vulnerable workers; (ii) use data for the formal sector; (iii) cover countries where minimum wage laws are strongly enforced; and (iv) estimate effects for countries and periods with binding minimum wages.

Exploring the Link between Work Addiction Risk and Health-Related Outcomes Using Job-Demand-Control Model.

Purpose of the study: Work addiction risk is a growing public health concern with potential deleterious health-related outcomes. Perception of work (job demands and job control) may play a major role in provoking the risk of work addiction in employees. We aimed to explore the link between work addiction risk and health-related outcomes using the framework of job-demand-control model. Methods: Data were collected from 187 out of 1580 (11.8%) French workers who agreed to participate in a cross-sectional study using the WittyFit software online platform. The self-administered questionnaires were the Job Content Questionnaire by Karasek, the Work Addiction Risk Test, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale and socio-demographics. Data Analysis: Statistical analyses were performed using the Stata software (version 13). Results: There were five times more workers with a high risk of work addiction among those with strong job demands than in those with low job demands (29.8% vs. 6.8%, p = 0.002). Addiction to work was not linked to job control (p = 0.77), nor with social support (p = 0.22). We demonstrated a high risk of work addiction in 2.6% of low-strain workers, in 15.0% of passive workers, in 28.9% of active workers, and in 33.3% of high-strain workers (p = 0.010). There were twice as many workers with a HAD-Depression score ≥11 compared with workers at low risk (41.5% vs. 17.7%, p = 0.009). Sleep quality was lower in workers with a high risk of work addiction compared with workers with a low risk of work addiction (44.0 ± 27.3 vs. 64.4 ± 26.8, p < 0.001). Workers with a high risk of work addiction exhibited greater stress at work (68.4 ± 23.2 vs. 47.5 ± 25.1) and lower well-being (69.7 ± 18.3 vs. 49.3 ± 23.0) compared with workers at low risk (p < 0.001). Conclusions: High job demands are strongly associated with the risk of work addiction. Work addiction risk is associated with greater depression and poor quality of sleep. Preventive strategies should benefit from identifying more vulnerable workers to work addiction risk.

Access to Justice for Vulnerable Workers and Citizens in Public/Private Governance Regimes: Lessons from the Regulatory Welfare State in the Netherlands

Abstract Mixed public/private governance regimes in social security are complex, legally intricate, and difficult to manage. This may operate as an obstacle for individual claimants when they want to protect themselves against decisions or actions of private actors or wish to enforce individual entitlements. Hence, individuals rely heavily on the corrective function exercised by the courts. Paradoxically, policies that create a public/private governance structure are not always geared towards strengthening access to justice for the individual. On the contrary, in the Netherlands, legislative changes and administrative practices purposefully raise the barriers to bringing cases to the independent judiciary. In this article, we analyse the relationship between the complex public/private governance regimes in social security and access to justice. It is argued that the policies should consider strengthening access to courts to counterbalance the weakened position of workers and vulnerable citizens.

Race, Labor, and the Future of Work

Amidst the full-throttle optimism surrounding the promise of automation to revolutionize the workplace and transform society for the better, there are concerns about the potential of such technologies to also widen the gulf of economic inequality. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his now iconic “I have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Although the March is now mostly remembered for its platitudes on multiracial unity, the true driving force of the March was to explicitly link the economic justice demands of workers to the demand for civil rights for racial minorities. And at the time of his assassination, Dr. King was in Memphis to march with sanitation workers and garbage collectors who had been spurred into action after unsafe working conditions led to the death of their colleagues. In the coming future of work, lax labor protections present a dire situation for workers who are racial minorities. While undoubtedly there are new labor markets and novel work opportunities created by the technological capability for decentralized management and remote work, the rhetoric around automation tends to elide the disparities between those who enjoy its benefits and those who bear the burden of being its draught horses. This chapter examines how race factors into the demographics of the workforce of the gig economy and other precarious jobs that are creating a planetary labor market – opening up new labor markets in developing nations but without the same labor protections as those in economically privileged countries. The chapter observes that racial minorities disproportionately perform the precarious work created by the gig economy and that the jobs at danger for full automation, such as retail and care work, are jobs held by white women and racial minorities. Meanwhile, technological advancements such as automated hiring and wearable technologies also portend that the future of work may have lob-sided benefits. Governmental action is necessary to ensure that the future of work is not a dystopia for all workers, but especially for more vulnerable workers of color.

Social Determinants of Health Are Needed in COVID-19 Risk Assessments for the Workforce

Social Determinants of Health Are Needed in COVID-19 Risk Assessments for the Workforce

Then and Now: Vulnerable Workers, Industrial Action, and the Law in the 1970s and Today

With the much vaunted ‘withering of the strike’, a mythology of past militancy appears to have taken root; militant men taking to the picket line on the flimsiest of pretexts. This stereotype is challenged through exploring two accounts of three strikes, Trico and Grunwick in 1976, and, following the raft of ‘salami slicing’ legislation kettling workers and trade unions, the dispute at Gate Gourmet in 2005. These were acts of desperation by vulnerable workers. Each book highlights the heterogeneity of race and gender, and in some cases how this served to divide workers. The attack on existing conditions and the increased use of agency workers, the issues challenged by Gate Gourmet workers, and continued disputes concerning equal pay, as with the Trico strike, indicate the limited power of organized labour today in the context of the persistence, if not escalation, of employment grievances.

Lean HRM practices in work integration social enterprises: Moving towards social lean production. Evidence from Italian case studies*

AbstractLean production human resource management (HRM) practices, which are deemed to increase firms’ competitiveness through a skilled and empowered workforce, have arisen in the context of for‐profit companies. The same attention to lean HRM practices has not been paid in non‐profit organizations. In turn, few studies have looked into the adoption of for‐profit HRM practices within such organizations or focused on single practices and ordinary workers. Within this research, dichotomous positions between advocates and opponents have emerged, but with an underlying universalistic perspective considering HRM practices as detached from context. We consider HRM practices as context dependent and conduct a new study concerning lean production HRM practices in work integration social enterprises (WISEs), a particular type of NPO and social enterprise that focuses on building employability and jobs for vulnerable workers. We rely on three case studies involving multiple actors. Our exploratory results suggest that WISEs realize social lean production. They implement lean HRM practices by adapting them to their specific context and integrating both social and economic goals.

Topic Modeling of Social Networking Service Data on Occupational Accidents in Korea: Latent Dirichlet Allocation Analysis

BackgroundIn most industrialized societies, regulations, inspections, insurance, and legal options are established to support workers who suffer injury, disease, or death in relation to their work; in practice, these resources are imperfect or even unavailable due to workplace or employer obstruction. Thus, limitations exist to identify unmet needs in occupational safety and health information.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore hidden issues related to occupational accidents by examining social network services (SNS) data using topic modeling.MethodsBased on the results of a Google search for the phrases occupational accident, industrial accident and occupational diseases, a total of 145 websites were selected. From among these websites, we collected 15,244 documents on queries related to occupational accidents between 2002 and 2018. To transform unstructured text into structure data, natural language processing of the Korean language was conducted. We performed the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) as a topic model using a Python library. A time-series linear regression analysis was also conducted to identify yearly trends for the given documents.ResultsThe results of the LDA model showed 14 topics with 3 themes: workers’ compensation benefits (Theme 1), illicit agreements with the employer (Theme 2), and fatal and non-fatal injuries and vulnerable workers (Theme 3). Theme 1 represented the largest cluster (52.2%) of the collected documents and included keywords related to workers’ compensation (ie, company, occupational injury, insurance, accident, approval, and compensation) and keywords describing specific compensation benefits such as medical expense benefits, temporary incapacity benefits, and disability benefits. In the yearly trend, Theme 1 gradually decreased; however, other themes showed an overall increasing pattern. Certain queries (ie, musculoskeletal system, critical care, and foreign workers) showed no significant variation in the number of queries.ConclusionsWe conducted LDA analysis of SNS data of occupational accident–related queries and discovered that the primary concerns of workers posting about occupational injuries and diseases were workers’ compensation benefits, fatal and non-fatal injuries, vulnerable workers, and illicit agreements with employers. While traditional systems focus mainly on quantitative monitoring of occupational accidents, qualitative aspects formulated by topic modeling from unstructured SNS queries may be valuable to address inequalities and improve occupational health and safety.

COVID-19 and Undeclared Work: Impacts, Challenges and Policy Responses

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on undeclared work in the Western Balkans and the emergent challenges for state authorities, and policy responses, in the immediate and longer-term in relation to tackling undeclared work. To achieve this, section 2 briefly evaluates COVID-19s impact on undeclared work in the Western Balkans. This examines its impacts on different types of undeclared enterprise and worker and the size and characteristics of those affected in the six Western Balkan economies using data from the Employment and Social Affairs Platform (ESAP1) economy reports on undeclared work and the 2020 Balkan Barometer. Section 3 then outlines the challenges state authorities in the Western Balkans and beyond witnessed in adapting to confinement in terms of on the one hand, providing protection for staff and on the other hand, their adoption of new working methods and practices. To do this, information provided at the 1st Plenary meeting of the Western Balkan Network Tackling Undeclared Work as well as from other European enforcement authorities is used. Section 4 turns to two important immediate challenges facing Western Balkan economies. On the one hand, there is the potential abuse of the short-term financial support schemes in Western Balkan economies, especially in relation to undeclared work, and on the other hand, the issue of protecting vulnerable workers in the undeclared economy left without revenue during the confinement period and possible policy responses that have and could be adopted. Section 5 then turns to three future challenges in the recovery period. The first issue is whether the conventional policy approaches and measures for transforming undeclared work into declared work will continue to remain valid. The second issue is whether the same or different policies will be required for preventing declared work shifting into the declared economy and the third and finally, there is the future challenge regarding the withdrawal of the short-term financial support packages and its implications for the growth of undeclared work. The sixth and final section then draws conclusions and makes recommendations.

Domestic workers’ commutes in Bogotá: Transportation, gender and social exclusion

Transportation, gender and social exclusion have increasingly come together in scholarly pursuits and policy agendas in Latin America and the Caribbean. The recognition of the gender dimension of sustainable mobility has opened a space to consider the role of women, especially of those facing poverty and exclusion, in this global agenda. However, research on the link between precarious occupations, social exclusion, and gender, and the role that mobility plays both in enhancing and limiting development opportunities for highly vulnerable workers in the Global South is still limited. Based on Bogotá’s 2015 Mobility Survey, data from an application that matches domestic workers with employers (HogarU) and interviews conducted with domestic workers, this paper investigates the case of Bogotá, Colombia, to describe domestic workers’ daily commutes. More specifically, it focuses on the long duration of their trips, their patterns, their inevitable connection to public transportation, and the financial implications for their restricted family budget. Considering a legal provision that establishes a time-window for switching between public transportation vehicles, the paper also examines its effects on domestic workers’ commutes. By doing so, the paper aims to address the situation not only of the massive group of female domestic workers traversing the city every day, but also of other similarly situated social groups that could find in transportation a path towards greater social inclusion.

New architectures for migration governance: NAFTA and transnational activism around migrants’ rights

ABSTRACT This article analyses the way in which free trade agreements may become a new form of migration governance architecture, through an examination of the case of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We argue that the inclusion of migrant worker rights among the labour rights covered by the labour side accord unexpectedly resulted in new forms of migrant rights advocacy and transnational cooperation to promote migrant worker rights, especially in the United States. We examine two cases that were brought before the NAFTA labour rights tribunal. While this form of activism has had limited concrete impact on improving the actual conditions faced by vulnerable migrant workers, it has had some positive results in politicising the issue of abuses of migrant workers’ rights in the United States. It has also resulted in the transnationalisation of struggles around migrant workers’ rights and the forging of new alliances between trade unions and migrants’ rights activists.

24th Collegium Ramazzini statement prevention of work-related infection in the COVID-19 pandemic

The Collegium Ramazzini is an independent, international society composed of 180 physicians and scientists from 35 countries. Its mission is to increase scientific knowledge of the environmental and occupational causes...

Belief in a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory as a Predictor of Mental Health and Well-Being of Health Care Workers in Ecuador: Cross-Sectional Survey Study

BackgroundDuring the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, social media platforms have become active sites for the dissemination of conspiracy theories that provide alternative explanations of the cause of the pandemic, such as secret plots by powerful and malicious groups. However, the association of individuals’ beliefs in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 with mental health and well-being issues has not been investigated. This association creates an assessable channel to identify and provide assistance to people with mental health and well-being issues during the pandemic.ObjectiveOur aim was to provide the first evidence that belief in conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 pandemic is a predictor of the mental health and well-being of health care workers.MethodsWe conducted a survey of 252 health care workers in Ecuador from April 10 to May 2, 2020. We analyzed the data regarding distress and anxiety caseness with logistic regression and the data regarding life and job satisfaction with linear regression.ResultsAmong the 252 sampled health care workers in Ecuador, 61 (24.2%) believed that the virus was developed intentionally in a lab; 82 (32.5%) experienced psychological distress, and 71 (28.2%) had anxiety disorder. Compared to health care workers who were not sure where the virus originated, those who believed the virus was developed intentionally in a lab were more likely to report psychological distress and anxiety disorder and to have lower levels of job satisfaction and life satisfaction.ConclusionsThis paper identifies belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories as an important predictor of distress, anxiety, and job and life satisfaction among health care workers. This finding will enable mental health services to better target and provide help to mentally vulnerable health care workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Bordering the surplus population across the Mediterranean: Imperialism and unfree labour in Libya and the Italian countryside

In spite of much emphasis on a “migration crisis” and studies on the “refugeeization” of the agricultural workforce in Italy, there is still little research on the impact of the NATO war on Libya and the militarization of EU borders in the Mediterranean on the development of labour exploitation and unfree labour in the sector. Focusing on the period between the 2007/8 global economic crisis, the 2011 uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, until 2018, this article analyses the links between the system of neo-colonial extraction of Libyan resources that imposed itself after the war and the expansion of the reserve army of labour of Italian capital. We show that the militarization of EU borders further empowered militias involved in fuel, weapon and human smuggling, boosting a brutal system of detention, extortion and forced labour that both traps immigrants in Libya and pushes them towards Europe. Agri-business and retail corporations operating in Italy have benefitted from the continuing importation of energy and of vulnerable workers from Libya. The substitution of workers with immigrants with a status of asylum-seekers helps explain the diffusion of unfree labour in Italian agriculture over the last ten years. But immigrants’ experiences in Libya have also encouraged them to mobilize and reclaim their collective rights.