Self-employment, work and health: A critical narrative review

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Tauhid Hossain Khan ◽  
Ellen MacEachen ◽  
Pamela Hopwood ◽  
Julia Goyal
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Occupational Health Services ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Management Support Systems ◽  
Work And Health

BACKGROUND: Self-employment (SE) is a growing precarious and non-standard work arrangement internationally. Economically advanced countries that favor digital labor markets may be promoting the growth of a demographic of self-employed (SE’d) workers who are exposed to particular occupational diseases, sickness, and injury. However, little is known about how SE’d workers are supported when they are unable to work due to illness, injury, and disability. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to critically review peer-reviewed literature focusing on advanced economies to understand how SE’d workers navigate, experience, or manage their injuries and illness when unable to work. METHODS: Using a critical interpretive lens, a systematic search was conducted of five databases. The search yielded 18 relevant articles, which were critically examined and synthesized. RESULTS: Five major themes emerged from the review: (i) conceptualizing SE; (ii) double-edged sword; (iii) dynamics of illness, injury, and disability; (iv) formal and informal health management support systems; and (v) occupational health services and rehabilitation. CONCLUSION: We find a lack of research distinguishing the work and health needs of different kinds of SE’d workers, taking into consideration class, gender, sector, and gig workers. Many articles noted poor social security system supports. Drawing on a social justice lens, we argue that SE’d workers make significant contributions to economies and are deserving of support from social security systems when ill or injured.

scholarly journals The changing concept of work

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 306-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Schoukens ◽  
Alberto Barrio
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Employment Relationship ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Recent Developments

In most countries, a standard (or core) model of employment relationship (i.e. full-time work under an open-ended employment contract) typically receives the greatest labour and social security protection, with divergent work arrangements receiving less protection in correlation to the magnitude of the differences between the former and the latter. However, recent developments concerning non-standard forms of work may question this dynamic. In this article, we examine the nature and current evolution of the standard employment relationship, then analyse how other forms of work deviate from this standard. In order to do so, we draw on the conclusions of the numerous studies recently published by scholars and international organisations in the wake of the growing public debate on the ‘new world of work’. Afterwards, we analyse the situation of non-standard workers under certain social security systems, in order to determine how those systems have approached the divergent character of these forms of work. This leads us to identify the main challenges that social security systems experience when faced with non-standard forms of work. The article concludes by addressing the need to adapt the basic principles of social security to the atypical features of non-standard work.

Digitalisation and social security in the EU. The case of platform work: from work protection to income protection?

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-451
Author(s):  
Paul Schoukens
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Standard Work ◽  
The Third ◽  
Precarious Situation ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Specific Working

Platform workers face problems in accessing effective social protection schemes. Furthermore, these workers are not always in a position to build up robust social protection rights even in case they can participate in the schemes. Compared to standard workers, they work in a precarious situation. The small tasks they perform, their geographical mobility and their low earnings are issues that create problems for social security systems’ ability to accommodate these workers. In this contribution, attention to the specific working conditions of platform workers is given; starting from the concept of standard work and a discussion of the way platform work deviates from that performed by standard workers (the original basis used to design traditional social protection schemes). In a second part of this paper, the various challenges that platform work create for social protection schemes are enunciated. In the third part of the contribution, the recent EU Recommendation on access to social protection is used as a yardstick to discuss what kind of answers should be given to accommodate platform workers in social protection schemes. In the final part, conclusions around three elements that are characteristic of platform work, yet not sufficiently addressed in national social protection schemes, nor in the EU Recommendation, are developed. These observations help to establish findings on the future outlook of social protection schemes, which should be inclusive and accommodative for all (new) types of work.

scholarly journals Understanding Social Security Development: Lessons From the Chinese Case

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110326
Author(s):  
Guan Huang ◽  
Zhuang Cai
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Common Mechanism ◽  
Social Security Systems ◽  
Security Systems ◽  
Security Research ◽  
Chinese Case ◽  
Thematic Approach ◽  
Convergence And Divergence

Understanding the development of social security systems constitutes the ultimate goal of social security research. This review traces and compares two schools of thought regarding social security development: the convergence and divergence schools. Using a thematic approach, this article first categorizes extant studies into one of these two schools and then identifies the broadly accepted mechanism of social security development by comparing them. After reviewing the extant research and its theoretical underpinnings, this article applies Mill’s methods of agreement and difference to show how the Chinese case contributes to and challenges our understanding of social security development. By discussing the assumptions of current research on social security development in light of the Chinese case, this article illuminates how political legitimacy serves as a common mechanism of social security development regardless of political context or structure.

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