Benefits Of Work Research Articles

Prevalência de benefícios auxílio-doença entre trabalhadores da Construção no Brasil em 2009

Objetivo estimar a prevalência de Benefícios Auxílio-Doença (BAD) entre trabalhadores do ramo da Construção e a potencial influência do sexo, idade e ramo de atividade no quadro de incapacidade para o trabalho, no Brasil, em 2009. Método estudo transversal de base populacional baseado nos BAD concedidos pela Previdência Social. Do Sistema Único de Benefícios e do Cadastro Nacional de Informações Sociais extraíram-se informações sobre ramo de atividade, sexo, idade, causa clínica e espécie de benefício. A população de estudo correspondeu à média mensal dos vínculos empregatícios declarados em 2009 (1.784.772). Resultados foram concedidos 81.235 BAD, resultando em prevalência de 455,2/10.000 vínculos, com predomínio da espécie BAD previdenciária (Razão de Prevalência [RP] 3,1), do sexo masculino (RP 1,3) e dos ramos de atividade Obras de acabamento, Construção de obras de arte e Obras de terraplenagem. Homens caracterizaram 76,7% mais BAD acidentários que mulheres. As principais causas diagnósticas foram Lesões, Doenças osteomusculares e Doenças digestivas. As categorias clínicas mais prevalentes foram Dorsalgia, Fratura ao nível do punho e da mão, Fratura da perna e Hérnia inguinal. A prevalência aumentou com a idade. Conclusão a prevalência mostrou-se influenciada pela espécie de benefício, ramo de atividade, sexo e idade. Os resultados sugerem potenciais mecanismos de subnotificação/demanda previdenciária.

Are biophilic-designed site office buildings linked to health benefits and high performing occupants?

This paper discusses the first phase of a longitudinal study underway in Australia to ascertain the broad health benefits of specific types of biophilic design for workers in a building site office. A bespoke site design was formulated to include open plan workspace, natural lighting, ventilation, significant plants, prospect and views, recycled materials and use of non-synthetic materials. Initial data in the first three months was gathered from a series of demographic questions and from interviews and observations of site workers. Preliminary data indicates a strong positive effect from incorporating aspects of biophilic design to boost productivity, ameliorate stress, enhance well-being, foster a collaborative work environment and promote workplace satisfaction, thus contributing towards a high performance workspace. The longitudinal study spanning over two years will track human-plant interactions in a biophilic influenced space, whilst also assessing the concomitant cognitive, social, psychological and physical health benefits for workers.

Domestic Workers in the UK - Any Enforceable Human Rights?

The plights of migrant domestic workers from historical and legal perspective appear to be internationally recognised. However, the setback lies with the lack of agreement on how best to deal with the problem. This paper examines the human rights protection for migrant domestic workers from international and national perspectives and finds that migrant domestic workers are barely protected. This group of workers continues to experience a series of human rights violation such as discrimination, criminalisation, and exploitation; with little or no means of redress. The ‘’international bill of rights’’ appear to provide some support for migrant domestic workers but its enforcement, as well as the enforcement of all other human rights instruments is problematic due to inadequate support at the national level. The adoption of the 189th Labour Convention in June 2011 has been praised as a landmark victory for domestic workers even though its effect is too soon to be called. However, considering that the United Kingdom did not support this Convention, its benefit for domestic workers in the country is currently doubtful. Further, the current changes to the United Kingdom immigration rules puts the future of migrant domestic workers (especially the new migrants) into a complete state of disarray. In addition, domestic workers in diplomatic households remain at the mercy of their employers’ immunity. This paper advocates a rethink of strategy in dealing with migrant domestic workers. It also attempts to make a case for the adoption of the ILO 189th Convention as the best way forward.

Short‐Time Compensation as a Tool to Mitigate Job Loss? Evidence on the U.S. Experience During the Recent Recession

During the recent recession only seventeen states offered short‐time compensation (STC)—prorated unemployment benefits for workers whose hours are reduced for economic reasons. Federal legislation passed in 2012 will encourage the expansion of STC. Exploiting cross‐state variation in STC, we present new evidence indicating that jobs saved during the recession as a consequence of STC may have been significant in manufacturing, but that the overall scale of the STC program was generally too small to have substantially mitigated aggregate job losses in the seventeen states. Expansion of the program is necessary for STC to be an effective countercyclical tool in the future.

Inspector Robot – A new collaborative testing system designed for the automotive final assembly line

Purpose – The paper aims to deliver an approach of how lightweight robot systems can be used to automate manual processes for higher efficiency, increased process capability and enhanced ergonomics. To show how these systems can be utilized in practice, a new collaborative testing system for an automated water leak test was designed using an image processing system utilized by the robot. Design/methodology/approach – The “water leak test” in an automotive final assembly line is often a significant cost factor due to its labour-intensive nature. This is particularly the case for premium car manufacturers as each vehicle is watered and manually inspected for leakage. This paper delivers an approach that optimizes the efficiency and capability of the test process by using a new automated in-line inspection system whereby thermographic images are taken by a lightweight robot system and then processed to locate the leak. Such optimization allows the collaboration of robots and manual labour which, in turn, enhances the capability of the process station. Findings – This paper examines the development of novel applications for lightweight robotic systems and provides a suitable process whereby the systems are optimized in technical, ergonomic and safety-related aspects. Research limitations/implications – A new automated testing process in combination with a processing algorithm was developed. Practical implications – To optimize and validate the system, it was set up in a true to reality model factory and brought to a prototypical status. Several original equipment manufacturers showed great interest in implementing the system in their assembly line. Social implications – The direct human–robot collaboration allows humans and robots to share the same workspace without strict separation measures which is a great advantage compared with traditional industrial robots. The workers benefit from a more ergonomic workflow and are relieved from unpleasant, repetitive and burdensome tasks. Originality/value – A lightweight robotic system was implemented in a continuous assembly line as a new area of application for these systems. The automated water leak test gives a practical example of how to enrich the assembly and commissioning lines, which are currently dominated by manual labour, with new technologies. This is necessary to reach a higher efficiency and process capability while maintaining a higher flexibility potential than fully automated systems.

Developing a change model for peer worker interventions in mental health services: a qualitative research study.

A range of peer worker roles are being introduced into mental health services internationally. There is some evidence that attests to the benefits of peer workers for the people they support but formal trial evidence in inconclusive, in part because the change model underpinning peer support-based interventions is underdeveloped. Complex intervention evaluation guidance suggests that understandings of how an intervention is associated with change in outcomes should be modelled, theoretically and empirically, before the intervention can be robustly evaluated. This paper aims to model the change mechanisms underlying peer worker interventions. In a qualitative, comparative case study of ten peer worker initiatives in statutory and voluntary sector mental health services in England in-depth interviews were carried out with 71 peer workers, service users, staff and managers, exploring their experiences of peer working. Using a Grounded Theory approach we identified core processes within the peer worker role that were productive of change for service users supported by peer workers. Key change mechanisms were: (i) building trusting relationships based on shared lived experience; (ii) role-modelling individual recovery and living well with mental health problems; (iii) engaging service users with mental health services and the community. Mechanisms could be further explained by theoretical literature on role-modelling and relationship in mental health services. We were able to model process and downstream outcomes potentially associated with peer worker interventions. An empirically and theoretically grounded change model can be articulated that usefully informs the development, evaluation and planning of peer worker interventions.

Meeting the Migrant Pension Challenge in China

This article proposes a notional defined contribution (NDC) mechanism to ensure pension mobility for the 150 million migrating workers in China during both the accumulation and drawdown phases. Planned governance would ensure independence from the three existing pension systems. An appropriately structured NDC plan of this type is shown to be viable by reference to a previously developed model of Zhejiang Province’s social security systems. Such a plan would remove mobility barriers for migrating workers, increase the retirement benefit for mobile workers, and reduce the future government liability for payouts in other pension systems in which migrants currently hold membership. (JEL codes: H55, J11, J18, R23)

Taylorism 2.0: Gamification, scientific management and the capitalist appropriation of play

Abstract By making work seem more like leisure time, gamification and corporate training games serve as a mechanism for solving a range of problems and, significantly, of increasing productivity. This piece examines the implications of gamification as a means of productivity gains that extend Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management, or Taylorism. Relying on measurement and observation as a mechanism to collapse the domains of labour and leisure for the benefit of businesses (rather than for the benefit or fulfilment of workers), gamification potentially subjugates all time into productive time, even as business leaders use games to mask all labour as something to be enjoyed. In so doing, this study argues, the agency of individuals – whether worker or player – becomes subject to the rationalized nature of production. This rationalization changes the nature of play, making it a duty rather than a choice, a routine rather than a process of exploration. Taken too far or used unthinkingly, it renders Huizinga’s magic circle into one more regulated office cubicle.

Ingots Defects under the influence of Solidification and Freezing Conditions.

The results of research to reach the conditions that prevents the emergence of primary or secondary voids and achieve worker benefit from molded by almost 100%, which was the situation that cast poured in a mold heated and insulated from all sides to achieve freezing directional full starting from the region remote from the casting and ending then. Has also been compared to the microscopic structure of the resulting castings of various molding conditions, as these conditions have achieved the best sound microscopic structures.

Ingots Defects under the influence of Solidification and Freezing Conditions.

The results of research to reach the conditions that prevents the emergence of primary or secondary voids and achieve worker benefit from molded by almost 100%, which was the situation that cast poured in a mold heated and insulated from all sides to achieve freezing directional full starting from the region remote from the casting and ending then. Has also been compared to the microscopic structure of the resulting castings of various molding conditions, as these conditions have achieved the best sound microscopic structures.

Igualdade de género e práticas de gestão de recursos humanos

Assuming that there are asymmetries and imbalances between women and men in the organizations, motivated by difficulties in reconciling professional, family and personal life, which if overtaken by conciliatory human resources management practices may generate benefits for workers and companies, this work intends to present a case study to evaluate the contribution of human resources management for the promotion of gender equality, in terms of reconciling professional, family and personal life. In this manner, we aim to characterize the human resources management practices promoting gender equality in the port setor company, and to analyze the perception and the difficulties that workers have in reconciling work, family and personal life. The preparation of this case study required the use of several techniques to collect qualitative data through analysis of public documents of the company, and techniques to collect quantitative data by applying a questionnaire to the universe of company workers. With this research a series of relevant results were obtained, which can help human resources management to further contribute to the needs of reconciling professional, family and personal life, and contribute to promote benefits for the organizations in the implementation of practices enhancing gender equality.

Who Benefits from Pension Enhancements?

During the late 1990s public pension funds across the United States accrued large actuarial surpluses. The seemingly flush conditions of the pension funds led legislators in most states to substantially improve retirement benefits for public workers, including teachers. In this study we examine the benefit enhancements to the teacher pension system in Missouri. The enhancements resulted in large windfall gains for teachers who were close to retirement when the legislation was enacted. By contrast, novice teachers, and teachers who had not yet entered the labor force, were made worse off. The reason is that front-end contribution rates have been raised for current teachers to offset past liabilities accrued from the enhancements. Total teacher retirement compensation, net of contribution costs, is lower for young teachers today as a result of the enhancement legislation. Given sharp increases in pension costs in other states, this finding may generalize to young teachers in many other plans.

Part-time unemployment and optimal unemployment insurance

A significant fraction of the labor force consists of employed workers who are part-time unemployed (underemployed) in the sense that they are unable to work as much as they prefer. This paper studies the design of optimal unemployment insurance in an economy with unemployment as well as part-time unemployment. Part-time work provides income insurance and serves as a stepping stone to full-time jobs. Unemployment benefits for part-timers reduce the outflow from part-time work to full-time employment. However, such benefits also increase the outflow from unemployment to part-time work, thereby reducing unemployment. We examine the optimal structure of benefits for unemployed and underemployed workers. The results indicate that there are welfare gains from part-time benefits. Moreover, there are welfare gains associated with time limits for unemployment benefits as well as for part-time benefits. The welfare gains from optimal insurance are larger when wages are fixed than when they are flexible.

Geographic and sector externalities from highly qualified human capital: the importance of the business service sector

This article develops a simple model where knowledge spillover is related to geography and sectors of the economy. Knowledge externality comes from those with college degree at sector level and the relative size of the business service sector at geographic level. We examine the model using data from Brazilian National Household Survey (PNAD) for the year 2008. We find evidence that sector concentration of highly qualified workers (with at least a college degree) generates knowledge externalities. Hence, workers benefit from the skills of their peers by learning from them. Also complementing the literature, we find a geographic knowledge spillover played by the business service sector. This last result holds even if we estimate rates of return to education by sectors or estimate wage regressions over sectors (not shown). This article also provides evidence of increasing returns to schooling in Brazil.

HPWS- Firm Performance link from the Unitarist and Critical School Thinking Perspectives

The question of what high performance work systems (HPWS) do for workers and ultimately for organizational performance has been recently received much attention from academics. In this study, we propose two competing perspectives as to the implications of HPWS for workers. The first, labelled the unitarist perspective, predicted that HPWS benefit both employers and workers. Employers gain through improved quality, productivity and financial returns, while workers benefit from higher wages, training and development, higher levels of autonomy and job satisfaction. The second perspective, labelled the critical school, suggested that HPWS would lead to work intensification. While HPWS increase business performance, this occurs at the expense of workers, thus having negative implications for employees. The results based on 8,277 employees and 684 workplaces supported, the unitarist perspective, but challenging the mutual-benefits thesis by suggesting that maximizing organizational performance may not necessarily be the same as maximizing employee well-being. Research implications and future research directions were implied.

Union wage effects

Despite declining bargaining power, unions continue to generate a wage premium. Some feel collective bargaining has had its day. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have recently called for the removal of bargaining rights from workers in the name of wage and employment flexibility, yet unions often work in tandem with employers for mutual gain based on productivity growth. If this is where the premium originates, then firms and workers benefit. Without unions bargaining successfully to raise worker wages, income inequality would almost certainly be higher than it is.

The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 - An Approach to Provide Basic & Contingent Social Security to the Unorganized Workers in India

The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 - An Approach to Provide Basic & Contingent Social Security to the Unorganized Workers in India

Creating a compelling business case for employers; psychosocial benefit for mature workers

Twenty years ago, those of us in the allied health field were trained to believe that mature people didn't lodge workers’ compensation claims and mature workers didn't have injuries because they ‘knew their work environment so well’. Only 7 years ago, insurers believed that their book of claims in Workers’ Compensation had no age related correlation to claims costs. We now know that all of these assumptions do not stand up in relation to the current workforce in Australia and we are building a wealth of knowledge about the mature cohort in today's workforce.This presentation will guide the audience through the process of developing a compelling business case to assist employers understand the cost benefit of proactively engaging with their mature employees and the benefits for both the workers over fifty five years of age and businesses in Australia.In developing a business case, the first stage of a strategy is being formulated for the care and well-being of mature workers, this leads to preparedness for effective return to work measures in the event of injury and health maintenance strategies for mature workers. The side benefits to a business are vast; from reduced turnover and associated costs, the retention of knowledge to reduced insurance costs and productivity benefits.Five years of analytical data will be presented to demonstrate the trending, the influences and precautionary tales for those committed to the psychological well-being of the mature workforce in Australia.

In the Hyphen: Perceptions, Benefits, and Challenges of Social Workers’ Dual Identity as Clinician–Client

This study is the first to directly inquire into the experience of clinical social workers who live “in the hyphen,” having received psychiatric diagnoses and/or been in therapy themselves. Rather than inhabiting these roles sequentially as previous studies suggest, many inhabit them simultaneously. Social workers who took part in this qualitative thematic analysis describe the benefits of living in the hyphen, such as greater understanding of client resistance and opportunity to serve as a model of realistic hope, as well as its challenges, including countertransference, retraumatization, and fear of being “outed.” Overall, the experience of “sitting in the other chair” was more important to participants than having a skillful therapist as a role model or sharing a specific diagnostic history with a client, which they cautioned did not offer a shortcut to authentic understanding or formation of a therapeutic alliance.

Outreach and performance analysis of microfinance institutions in Cameroon

Since people with low incomes do not have access to financial institutions, and in most developing countries only public workers benefit from the services of public banks, the poor and private workers with low incomes cannot borrow from these public banks. Hence, microfinancial institutions (MFIs) have become the answer to those who cannot benefit from the financial services of the public banks. This study compares the performance and outreach aspect of the MFIs in Cameroon against the African benchmark. Furthermore, it investigates if there is a trade-off between performance and outreach. A total of six selected MFIs with branches all over Cameroon were chosen for this study. Using the difference of mean test, the findings of the study revealed that generally, the MFIs in Cameroon implemented a low cost strategy and are heavily exposed to default risk. We also concluded a trade-off between the performance and outreach factors. MFIs in Cameroon are more focused on making profits, instead of reaching out to the poorest of the poor in the communities.