Employmentweb_low

eMployMent relations and health inequalities: pathways and MechanisMs
Figure 14. Macro-structural theoretical framework linking power relations, labour market and welfare
state policies with employment conditions (studied pathways are highlighted).
eMPloyMenT
Full-time Permanent Employment
PoWer relaTions
Unemployment
WorK
orGanisaTion
Market
(Unions, Corporations,
Institutions)
Policies
Labour Market
(Labour Regulations,
Industrial Relations)
Non-standard Employment
Precarious Employment
Partially or Fully
Informal Empl.
Slavery / Child Labour
Working Conditions
Exposures, Hazards and
Risk Factors
Government
(Parties)
Social Class, Gender, Age, Ethnicity,
Migrant Status
Health
Inequalities
Welfare State
(Social and Health Policies)
Material Deprivation and
Economic Inequalities
Civil Society
(NGOs, Community
Associations)
Health Systems
Social and Family Networks
meaning of the arrows represented in the model:
influence Mutual influence interaction or buffering influence at various levels
source: prepared by the authors
al., 2002; navarro et al. 2003; navarro et al., 2006 ; chung &
Muntaner, 2006), despite the fact that employment relations are
defining features of welfare states (esping-andersen, 1990;
huber & stephens, 2001). in europe, union strength indicators
(such as union density and collective bargaining coverage)
overlap with welfare state regime types, predict health at the
national level (navarro et al., 2006) and are associated with
welfare state redistribution policies (e.g., universal health care).
at a proximal level of analysis, a country’s employment relations
determine exposures that affect workers’ health via two social
causal pathways: compensation and working conditions.
in low- and middle-income countries, labour markets are
characterised by the large size of the informal sector, more
hazardous and inequitable employment relations including child
labour, slave labour, poverty wages, and women’s unemployment
and underemployment rates. Below, we present an illustration of the
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