Job satisfaction across Europe: An analysis of the heterogeneous temporary workforce in 27 countries

The consequences of temporary jobs for job satisfaction are not clear. This article examines the effect of two crucial moderators in the association between temporary contracts and job satisfaction: the reason for being a temporary worker and the duration of temporary contracts. Using the ad-hoc module of the 2017 EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), this study examines 27 European countries separately. Results show that involuntary temporary workers (those who wanted a permanent contract but could not find one) tend to be less satisfied than permanent employees. However, voluntary temporary workers (those who prefer temporary over permanent jobs) and temporary workers in apprenticeships or probation periods are generally as satisfied as permanent employees. Shorter contracts frequently exert negative effects on job satisfaction, but only among involuntary temporary workers. Results differ between countries: the differences between temporary and permanent workers are insignificant in Scandinavian countries but large in the post-Socialist states.

[When nursing students turn to temping to fight job insecurity]

While insecurity can affect students in any field of study, those studying to become nurses are particularly badly off. Receiving lower internship allowances than other students, depending on the region and not on the regional center for university and school works, they also have to deal with a very busy training program. Many of them then turn to temporary work, which allows them to earn what they need to continue learning their future profession. This situation should no longer exist in 2023: all students should be able to train under good conditions.

The Influence of Gender Inequality in the Development of Job Insecurity: Differences Between Women and Men

Job insecurity is an indicator of precarious work that refers to the fear of losing one's job. It is a relevant source of stress, with negative consequences on people's mental health. The main objective and contribution of this study is to identify how gender inequality and job insecurity are related, responding to the lack of consensus found in scientific literature in this field of study. To do so, a predictive study of job insecurity, broken down by gender, is developed, considering sociodemographic and labor variables as antecedents. The sample included 1,005 employees (420 men and 585 women) aged between 18 and 65, and a linear regression was conducted for each group. Results show that women perceive greater insecurity under precarious working conditions (temporary work, informal work, salary cuts, tenure), whereas in the case of men variables related to their professional careers (job category, education) and household incomes were relevant predictors. It is concluded that job insecurity affects both gender groups, but the conditions in which this perception grows are significantly impacted by gender inequality. These findings will allow for holistic and effective actions to decrease the effects of precarious work.

Considering Work Arrangement as an "Exposure" in Occupational Health Research and Practice

Most occupational health research is conducted with the so-called “standard employment relationship” in mind, which entails ongoing, full-time employment for a single employer. Yet mounting evidence suggests the way work is organized is increasingly deviating from this standard model, and that work arrangements themselves—the terms and conditions of employment such as contract type and the extent of directive control over tasks—are important determinants of worker health and safety. However, a lack of clear conceptual definitions or taxonomic system defining the wide variety of economic work arrangements in the contemporary workplace hampers rigorous investigation of their relationship to health. The various forms of “non-standard” employment arrangements—also called non-traditional, alternative, flexible, fissured, precarious, contingent, temporary, atypical, or gig work—may have overlapping attributes, yet ambiguity regarding the character of these arrangements obscures mechanisms that lead to increased health and safety risks. Here, we attempt to clarify work arrangements as a workplace exposure, deserving of specific attention within occupational health and safety research, practice, and policy. We argue that, at minimum, three key features of work arrangements need to be considered: (1) whether an arrangement is permanent or temporary; (2) whether a worker is a contractor or an employee; and (3) whether an arrangement involves more than one firm. We further propose mechanisms linking work arrangements to increased work-related health risks to better inform strategies aimed at protecting the growing non-standard workforce.

Do Temporary Workers More Often Decide to Work While Sick? Evidence for the Link between Employment Contract and Presenteeism in Europe

European employees are increasingly likely to work in cases of illness (sickness presenteeism, SP). Past studies found inconsistent evidence for the assumption that temporary workers decide to avoid taking sick leave due to job insecurity. A new measure to identify decision-based determinants of SP is presenteeism propensity (PP), which is the number of days worked while ill in relation to the sum of days worked while ill and days taken sickness absence. We investigated the link between employment contract and PP using cross-sectional data from 20,240 employees participating in the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. Workers were grouped by type and duration of employment contract. The link between contract and PP was estimated using a multilevel Poisson model adjusted for socio-demographical, occupational and health-related covariates. We found that European employees worked 39% of the days they were ill. In contrast to previous studies, temporary workers were significantly more likely to decide for presenteeism than permanent workers were, especially when the contract was limited to less than 1 year. Controlling for perceived job insecurity did just marginally attenuate this association. Presenteeism was also more common among young and middle-aged workers; however, we did not find a significant interaction between contract and age affecting presenteeism. In conclusion, the employment contract is an important determinant of presenteeism. Our results give reason to believe that temporary workers show increased attendance behavior independent of job insecurity, because they are less likely to have access to social protection in case of illness.

Temporary work and depressive symptoms in South Korean workers

Background

In many countries, including South Korea, labour market changes have led to an increase in unstable, temporary jobs. There is evidence that workers in such jobs may experience poorer mental health than those in more stable employment.

Aims

To investigate the association between temporary employment and depressive symptoms in South Korean workers.

Methods

We analysed data from the 2010-2014 Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS). Employment type was categorized into workers paid per day of labour (day labourers), those on short-term contracts (fixed-term workers) and permanent workers. The association between employment type and depressive symptoms, measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D 11), was examined using the generalized estimating equation model.

Results

A total of 3756 workers aged 20-59 were included in the 2010 baseline population. Day labourers had the highest mean CES-D 11 score, followed by fixed-term workers and permanent workers. With the day labourer group as reference, fixed-term workers (β: -1.5027, P < 0.001) and permanent workers (β: -2.1848, P < 0.001) showed statistically significant decreases in depression scores.

Conclusions

Compared with day labourers, fixed-term workers and permanent workers had progressively lower depression scores. The findings of this study suggest that mental health inequalities based on employment type exist in South Korea.

[The type of employment contract and employees' health and occupational functioning--The review of studies]

From over 2 decades intensive research concerning temporary workers has been carried out in Europe and outside Europe. Despite having the highest rate of temporary workers in Europe, the studies on this topic are very rare in Poland. The aim of the study was to review the existing research on the relations between temporary work and employees' health and occupational functioning. The main conclusion from this review is that there is a significant inconsistency between the results of the studies included in this review due to such factors as heterogeneity of the group "temporary workers," cultural and generational differences between temporary workers, as well as different economic context in which those studies had been carried out. The main recommendations for the future research is thus to take into account the personal preferences for performing temporary work and to use more complex study design.