Working Conditions in Mid‐life and Participation in Voluntary Work After Labour Market Exit

Abstract Background Many studies have shown that psychosocial work stressors have a negative impact on health. It is therefore important to understand how psychosocial work stressors can be reduced. First cross-sectional studies have shown that working conditions are influenced at the political level. With this study, we want to extend the existing studies by specifically looking at the longitudinal dimension and test if changing labour market policies are related to changes in psychosocial work stressors. Methods We used comparative longitudinal survey data from the European Working Conditions Survey (27 countries; years 2005, 2010, 2015). The measure of psychosocial work stressors is based on two established work stress models: job strain and effort-reward imbalance. To measure labour market policies we used information on active (ALMP) and passive labour market policies (PLMP). 64659 participants were eligible for the ERI analysis and 67114 participants for the analyses on job strain. Estimation results are provided by three-level multilevel regressions. Results An increase in ALMP investments lead to a decrease of ERI and therefore to an improvement in psychosocial working conditions. The analyses for the subcomponents showed that these results are mainly driven by reward: an increase in ALMP investments lead to an increase in rewards. We didn't find significant associations between ALMP and job strain and between a change in PLMP measures and the observed work stressors. Discussion The study extends current knowledge with longitudinal information by showing that an increase in ALMP lead to an increase in rewards and a decrease of ERI. These longitudinal analyses are more closely related to a causal interpretation than previous cross-country analyses. The findings of this study may have important policy implications. Our main result suggests that investments into ALMP can improve certain working conditions and therefore improve workers' health. Key messages Psychosocial work stressors have a negative impact on health. Investments into active labour market policies can improve psychosocial working conditions.

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Labour Market Exit and Social Stratification in Western Europe: The Effects of Social Class and Gender on the Timing of Retirement

European Sociological Review ◽

10.1093/esr/jcs045 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 654-668 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Author(s):

Jonas Radl

Keyword(s):

Social Class ◽

Labour Market ◽

Social Stratification ◽

Western Europe ◽

Market Exit ◽

And Gender

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Social Exclusion in Older-Age and the European Pillar of Social Rights

International Perspectives on Aging - Social Exclusion in Later Life ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-51406-8_33 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 421-431

Author(s):

Maciej Kucharczyk

Keyword(s):

Older People ◽

Labour Market ◽

Social Exclusion ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Social Protection ◽

Later Life ◽

Social Rights ◽

Term Care ◽

Goods And Services

AbstractThe European Pillar of Social Rights is about delivering new and more effective rights for Europeans. It builds upon 20 key principles, structured around three categories: equal opportunities and access to the labour market; fair working conditions; and social protection and inclusion. Directly relevant to older people, the Pillar has the potential to address the multidimensionality of exclusion in later life from a rights-based perspective – for example, by enhancing the rights to quality and affordable health and long-term care, to adequate pensions to live in dignity, to age-friendly working conditions and an inclusive labour market, or to access goods and services. Despite these valuable elements, there remains significant uncertainly around how the Pillar will achieve this and what kind of implemental actions might emerge across member states. This chapter analyses the potential of the European Pillar to address social exclusion of older people in Europe, the challenges that might impede its efforts, and the measures necessary to overcome such challenges.

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Digital collaborative platforms: A challenge for both the legislator and the social partners in the Nordic model

European Labour Law Journal ◽

10.1177/2031952520905154 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 142-153 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Annamaria Westregård

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Labour Market ◽

Working Conditions ◽

New Economy ◽

Labour Law ◽

Collective Agreements ◽

Employment Conditions ◽

The Social ◽

Social Partners ◽

Security Regulations

This paper focuses on the specific problems in the labour and social security legislation as it relates to crowdworkers in the digitalised new economy, analysing their place in labour market, and especially in the collective agreements which are the standard means of regulating working conditions in the Nordic model. Sweden has a binary system where a performing party is as either an employee or self-employed. The law on working and employment conditions offers only limited protection to those on short, fixed-term contracts; instead, it is social partners that have improved crowdworkers’ conditions in some industries by using collective bargaining. However, there are no collective agreements in the digital economy, or indeed for platform entrepreneurs. The complications of the parties’ positions will be analysed, especially as platforms do not consider themselves to be employers, but rather coordinators of the self-employed. It is not only labour law regulations that are important to prevent precariat among crowdworkers. It is also very important that the social security regulations adapt to the new labour market as the social security legislation is an important part of the Nordic model.

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Re-introducing the company in the analysis of labour market dualisation: Variety of patterns and diversity of outcomes between standard and non-standard workers in multinational subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany and Britain

Economic and Industrial Democracy ◽

10.1177/0143831x17731610 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (3) ◽

pp. 586-609 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Valeria Pulignano ◽

Nadja Doerflinger ◽

Maarten Keune

Keyword(s):

Labour Market ◽

Case Studies ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Multinational Corporation ◽

Single Pattern ◽

Local Actors ◽

Institutional Contexts ◽

Institutional Legacies

This article re-introduces the company in the analysis of labour market dualisation by studying local actors’ (i.e. management and employee representatives) strategies as embedded in organisational and institutional contexts. Building on 12 case studies of multinational corporation (hereinafter MNC) subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany and Britain, the authors illustrate how organisational and institutional legacies influence (but do not determine) local actors’ strategic arrangements regarding the working conditions of standard (insider) and non-standard (outsider) workers. The outcomes resulting from these local (negotiated) arrangements illustrate a variety of inequality patterns, rather than any single pattern. The study distinguishes between convergence, where differences in working conditions between the different groups of workers decrease as the result of reduced standards for the better-off group, and divergence, where these differences increase.

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Reproduction of marginality: The labour market position of unemployed foreign citizens during economic recession in Iceland

Migration Studies ◽

10.1093/migration/mnz037 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Wojtyńska ◽

Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir

Keyword(s):

Focus Groups ◽

Social Networking ◽

Labour Market ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Economic Recession ◽

Native Population ◽

Market Position ◽

Unemployment Rates ◽

Foreign Population ◽

Labour Market Position

Abstract Following the economic crash in 2008, many migrants in Iceland lost their jobs and experienced deteriorating working conditions. In 2011, four years after the onset of the recession, the unemployment rates among the foreign population remained significantly higher than among Icelanders. In this article, we discuss experiences of unemployed migrants concerning their changed position on the labour market in order to highlight the different mechanisms of labour market exclusion. On the basis of research among registered unemployed foreign citizens, we analyse the main reasons for their difficulties in finding new employment. The main obstacles as reported by survey respondents and focus groups participants were limited knowledge of Icelandic, increased reluctance among Icelandic employers to hire foreigners and insufficient social networking with the native population.

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