The generalization of flexible labour markets, the declining influence of unions and the degradation of social protection has led to the emergence of new forms of employment at the expense of the ...Standard Employment Relationship, as well as a considerable amount of research across social and scientific disciplines. Years ago we suggested the urgent need to disentangle the consequences of new types of employment for the health and well-being of workers, contending that the study of precarious employment and health is in its infancy. Today, research challenges include clearer, more precise definitions of the original concepts, a more detailed understanding of the pathways and mechanisms through which precarious employment harms worker health, stronger information systems for monitoring the problem and a complex systems approach to employment conditions and health research. All of these must be guided by the theoretical and policy debates linking precarious employment and health, and be geared towards developing better tools for the design, implementation and evaluation of policies intended to minimize precariousness in the labour market and its effects on public health and health inequalities. Our aim in this paper is to outline an agenda for the next decade of research on precarious employment and health, establishing a compelling programme that expands our understanding of complex causes and links.
Precarious employment has been increasing worldwide. Yet there are few scales suitable to assess it, and no scales to measure perceived job precariousness in working students who are particularly ...vulnerable. Using classic test theory, we generated 21 job precariousness items and had them reviewed by experts. In Study 1 (N = 282, 63% female, mean age 22 years), exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors of job conditions, security, remuneration, and flexibility, each with 3 items. In Study 2 (N = 211, 75% female, mean age 22 years), confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that this four-factor model was the best fit compared to unidimensional, second-order, and bifactor models. Cronbach’s α coefficients for all factors and the full-scale score were sound (all >.78). Validity was supported by showing that precariousness was related negatively to life satisfaction and employer support and positively to job insecurity, financial strain, and subjective social status. Precariousness was unrelated to age, sex, and hours worked. The Job Precariousness Scale has the potential to promote research into the effects of precarious employment on working students’ current and future functioning and achievement and how experiences of precariousness influence the development of a precarity identity.
In an original and striking study of migration management in operation, Disrupting Deportability highlights obstacles confronting temporary migrant workers in Canada seeking to exercise their labor ...rights. Leah F. Vosko explores the effects of deportability on Mexican nationals participating in Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). Vosko follows the decade-long legal and political struggle of a group of Mexican SAWP migrants in British Columbia to establish and maintain meaningful collective representation. Her case study reveals how modalities of deportability—such as termination without cause, blacklisting, and attrition—destabilize legally authorized temporary migrant agricultural workers. Through this detailed exposé, Disrupting Deportability concludes that despite the formal commitments to human, social, and civil rights to which migration management ostensibly aspires, the design and administration of this "model" temporary migrant work program produces conditions of deportability, making the threat possibility of removal ever-present.
Precarious employment and mental health Rönnblad, Torkel; Grönholm, Erik; Jonsson, Johanna ...
Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health,
01/2019, Volume:
45, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Objectives Precarious employment (PE) is a term used to describe non-standard employment forms characterized by low security that may have negative effects on mental health. The objective of this ...review was to systematically review the evidence for effects of PE on mental health and identify important areas for further research. Methods A protocol was developed following PRISMA-P guidelines. Web of Science, PubMed and PsycINFO were searched up to 4 September 2017. All unique records were assessed for eligibility and quality by at least two reviewers. Data from included studies were summarized in forest plots and meta-analyses using a random-effects model. Evidence quality was rated using the GRADE method. Results We obtained 3328 unique records, of which 16 studies of sufficient quality met the inclusion criteria. Moderate quality evidence (GRADE score 3 of 4) was found for an adverse effect of job insecurity on mental health; summary odds ratio (OR) 1.52 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.35-1.70. There was very low quality (GRADE 1 of 4) evidence for effects of temporary employment or unpredictable work hours on mental health. Five studies on multidimensional exposures all showed adverse effects, weighted average OR 2.01 (95% CI 1.60-2.53). Conclusions Research on PE and mental health is growing, but high-quality prospective studies are still scarce. Job insecurity likely has an adverse effect on mental health. A clear multi-dimensional definition of PE is lacking, and harmonization efforts are needed. Further single-variable observational studies on job insecurity or temporary employment should not be prioritized.
The current systematic literature review aimed to analyse the associations between temporary agency work (TAW), job satisfaction, and mental health in Europe, as well as to outline a future research ...agenda. Twenty-eight scientific articles were identified by searching different data bases (i.e. PSYNDEX, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science) for the time span from January 2000 to December 2016. Our review reveals first that TAW is not consistently negatively related to job satisfaction. However, job insecurity and working conditions are important mediators in the relation of TAW and lowered job satisfaction. Second, TAW is not consistently related to all investigated types of mental health impairments. However, when focusing on specific outcomes and comparing temporary agency workers to permanent employees, we still find consistent evidence regarding higher levels of depression and fatigue among temporary agency workers. Inconsistent associations between TAW, job satisfaction and mental health can partly be attributed to unfavourable methodological aspects of the included primary studies. To address these aspects, future research should consider applying a standard measurement of TAW, including a minimum of meaningful confounding variables, improving the operationalisation of outcome variables and the study design.
Background: The impact of unemployment and precarious employment on the health of young people is not well understood. However, according to social causation, higher socio-economic positions and thus ...better working conditions are beneficial to health in general. We tried to synthesize the results of studies that test this hypothesis in the case of young people. Methods: We conducted a scoping study mapping all the academic articles published in the period 2006–2016 in Europe. The literature was searched in PubMed/Medline, Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus. Results: We identified 1770 studies, of which only 46 met the inclusion criteria. There are more studies that focus on the relationship between unemployment and health than between precarious employment and health (28 and 16, respectively). The vast majority of the studies (44) found support for the social causation hypothesis, the most common health outcomes being mental health disorders, health risk behaviour, poor quality of life and occupational injuries. The causal mechanisms behind this association relied mainly on the life-course perspective, the breadwinner model, and the lack of social and economic benefits provided by standard employment. Conclusions: There is evidence that young people are especially vulnerable to health problems when unemployed or working in precarious conditions. Active labour market and training programmes, inclusive social security measures, improved working conditions and targeted health programmes are important for addressing this vulnerability. Further research should strive to enhance the causal model by including a gender perspective, longitudinal data, more indicators on precariousness and third factor explanations.
Objectives The aims of this position paper are to (i) summarize research on precarious employment (PE) in the context of occupational health; (ii) develop a theoretical framework that distinguishes ...PE from related concepts and delineates important contextual factors; and (iii) identify key methodological challenges and directions for future research on PE and health. Methods This position paper is the result of a working group consisting of researchers from the EU, Turkey and the USA, who have discussed the issue over the course of six months (October 2018-April 2019), meeting both online and face-to-face on several occasions. Results The lack of a common theoretical framework of PE hinders it from becoming an established part of occupational and public health research. There are also issues regarding operationalization in surveys and registers. Further, previous research on PE and health suffers from methodological limitations including inadequate study designs and biased assessments of exposure and outcomes. PE is highly dependent on contextual factors and cross-country comparison has proven very difficult. We also point to the uneven social distribution of PE, ie, higher prevalence among women, immigrants, young and low educated. We propose a theoretical framework for understanding precarious employment as a multidimensional construct. Conclusions A generally accepted multidimensional definition of PE should be the highest priority. Future studies would benefit from improved exposure assessment, temporal resolution, and accounting for confounders, as well as testing possible mechanisms, eg, by adopting multi-level and intersectional analytical approaches in order to understand the complexity of PE and its relation to health.
•Prevalence of employment precariousness is higher among temporary workers.•A positive gradient exists between poor mental health and employment precariousness.•Precariousness among permanent workers ...have stronger impact on poor mental health.•Multidimensional Employment Precariousness Scale is useful for health research.•Monitoring employment precariousness is a priority to reduce health inequalities.
Employment precariousness (EP) has expanded over recent years. The aim of this study is to test the existence of a general precarisation of the Spanish labour market and its association with mental health for different types of contract.
On the subsample of salaried workers from the second Psychosocial Work Environment Survey and using the revised Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES-2010), we calculated the prevalence of EP and poor mental health for salaried workers. We created six groups of workers according to their levels of EP and types of contract. We used Poisson regressions, stratified by gender, to examine associations between belonging to the different groups of workers and poor mental health.
Although temporary workers had a higher prevalence of EP and poorer mental health than permanent workers, we found that the association with poor mental health was unexpectedly stronger in permanent workers with high precariousness (2.97, IC95% 2.25–3.92 in men and 2.50, 1.70–3.67 in women) than in temporary workers (2.17, IC95% 1.59–2.96 in men and 1.81, 1.17–2.78 in women). A gradient of poor mental health existed by EP score for both men and women and permanent and temporary workers.
The Spanish labour market is highly affected by employment precarisation. Using the multidimensional EPRES is more informative and a better tool for mental health research than type of contract alone. Creating a surveillance system to monitor the magnitude and evolution of EP has to be a priority in order to reduce health inequalities and to evaluate the impact of policies and programs.
The problem of precarious employment in social enterprises has not been thoroughly researched in scientific literature. This study addresses this gap by examining the factors that impact precarious ...employment in social enterprises in emerging economies. Based on a Polish case study of 200 social enterprises, the findings indicate that this impact differs depending on the scope of the use of flexi-forms of employment in an organisation. The study emphasises that policymakers should pay particular attention to reducing bureaucratic obstacles and complicated formalities related to the use of public money in social enterprises. This study provides managers with real evidence about the causes of precarious employment in organisations.
Working Without Commitments offers a new understanding of the social and health impacts of this change in the modern workplace, where outsourcing, limited term contracts, and the elimination of ...pensions and health benefits have become the new standard. Using information from interviews and surveys with workers in less permanent employment, the authors show how precarious employment affects the health of workers, labour productivity, and the sustainability of the traditional family model. A timely and relevant work for uncertain economic times, Working Without Commitments provides helpful information for understanding the present workplace and securing better futures for today's workforce.
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