Employmentweb_low

eMployMent relations and health inequalities: pathways and MechanisMs
Social inequalities in the impact of flexible employment on different domains of psychosocial health
this study takes place in catalonia (a region in northeast spain), using a cross-sectional health survey. it examines four
types of contractual arrangements: permanent contract, fixed-term temporary contract, non-fixed-term temporary
contract, and no contract. Multiple logistic regression models separated for sex and social class (manual and non-manual
workers) were fitted, controlling for age. some forms of temporary contracts are related to adverse health and psychosocial
outcomes, with different patterns depending on the outcome analysed as well as on sex and social class. Fixed-term
temporary contracts were not associated with poor mental health status. the impact of other forms of flexible employment
on mental health depended on the type of contractual arrangement, sex and social class, and it was restricted to less
privileged workers, women, and manual male workers. among both manual and non-manual male workers, those with
fixed-term temporary contracts were less likely to have children when married or cohabiting. non-manual male workers
were also more likely to remain single (aor=2.35; ci=1.13,4.90).
Source
artazcoz, l., benach, J., borrell, c., & cortés, i. (2005). social inequalities in the impact of flexible employment on different
domains of psychosocial health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 761–767.
Associations between temporary employment and occupational injury: what are the mechanisms
data systematically recorded for 2000 and 2001 by the spanish Ministry of labour and social affairs on fatal and nonfatal
traumatic occupational injuries were examined by type of employment and type of accident, while adjusting for gender,
age, occupation, and length of employment in the company. in the study period, there were 1500 fatal and 1,806,32 non-fatal
traumatic occupational injuries which occurred at the workplace. incidence rates and rate ratios (rr) were estimated using
poisson regression models. temporary workers showed a rate ratio of 2.94 for non-fatal occupational injuries (ci:2.40,3.61)
and 2.54 for fatal occupational injuries (ci:1.88,3.42). when these associations were adjusted by gender, age, occupation
and, especially, length of employment, they lose statistical significance: 1.05 (ci:0.97,1.12) for non-fatal occupational injuries
and 1.07 (ci:0.91,1.26) for fatal occupational injuries. lower job experience and knowledge of workplace hazards, measured
by length of employment, is a possible mechanism explaining the consistent association between temporary workers and
occupational injury.
Source
benavides, F. g., benach, J., Muntaner, c., delclos, g. l., catot, n., & amable, M. (2006). associations between temporary
employment and occupational injury: what are the mechanisms Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63, 416-421.
selected case studies
Case study 47. Precarious employment and health. - Marianna virtanen, Jussi vahtera and Mika Kivimäki
common trends in modern working life include global competition for labour markets, organisational changes (such
as downsizing and mergers) and increasing use of various kinds of temporary work arrangements (gowing, Kraft, &
campbell quick, 1998). even economic booms do not seem to be bringing an end to these changes, which may subject a
substantial part of the workforce to increased stress and job insecurity. approximately 9 per cent of employees are estimated
to be insecurely employed, which constitutes a total of several million people in europe alone (de witte, 2005).
since the recessions that hit most industrialised countries during the 1990s, evidence has accumulated of health risks
to the survivors of corporate downsizing. the Finnish raisio study showed that the risk of health problems, as indicated by
medically-certified sickness absence and other indicators of health, increased after major downsizing. an especially high
increase in sickness absence was found in workplaces with a high proportion of older employees. half of this excess risk
was attributable to an elevated level of work stress, as indicated by increased workload, increased job insecurity and
reduced job control (Kivimäki, vathera, pentti, & Ferrie, 2000). the adverse health effects of downsizing have been shown in
several other studies (quinlan, Mayhew, & bohle, 2001) as well as in a large Finnish cohort, the 10-town study, showing
increased cardiovascular mortality (vahtera et al., 2004), use of psychotropic drugs (Kivimäki et al., 2007) and rates of
disability pensions (vahtera & Kivimäki, 2005).
the association between temporary employment and health is less clear. although temporary employment has been
associated with mortality (Kivimäki et al., 2003) and psychological morbidity (virtanen et al., 2005), several null findings have
also been reported. in some datasets, temporary employees had higher injury rates but lower sickness absence rates than
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