Motivations for Labour Provision on Digital Platforms in Europe

Research on the gig economy has rarely addressed the study on the motivations for the provision of labour services on digital platforms. Through a sample of 3,619 gigers in Europe, obtained from the COLLEM research, results have been obtained for labour providers (only gigers) and for labour and capital use providers (gigers and renters). The valuation of labour, being an internal resource of the gigers, has a great set of economic foundations, working conditions, and labour relations. On the other hand, the valuation of labour and capital uses is more focused on their economic and labour relations fundamentals, notably reducing the role of working conditions. These motivations suggest different platform strategies and public employment policies for both groups. While the promotion of the general job quality would also encourage the gig-job quality, the promotion of the labour and capital uses valuation requires specific actions on the platform operations.

The Psychological Empowerment and its Relationship to the Quality of Job Life for the Palestinian Police Personnel in Hebron Governorate: التمكين النفسي وعلاقته بجودة الحياة الوظيفية لدى أفراد الشرطة الفلسطينية في محافظة الخليل

The study attempts to identify the psychological empowerment and its relationship to the quality of job life for the Palestinian police personnel in Hebron governorate. The study population consisted of (835) male and female police officers, whereas the study sample consisted of (161), who were chosen by a simple random sample method and the results were as follows: The level of psychological empowerment of Palestinian police personnel was high, and there were statistically significant differences at the level (α≤0.05) in the averages degree of psychological empowerment over the total score due to the years of experience variable in favor of police personnel who have (11 years or more) of experience. There are also statistically significant differences at the level (α≤0.05) in the averages of the degree of psychological empowerment of police officers over the total score due to the educational level variable. The degree of job quality of the Palestinian police personnel was high. There were no statistically significant differences at the (α≤0.05) level in the averages of the degree of job quality on the total degree due to the variables of years of experience and educational level. Also, there is a statistically significant relationship at the level of significance (α≤0.05) between the total score of the psychological empowerment averages and the quality of work life for police personnel. The study recommended the need to reinforce the status of Palestinian police by maintaining the quality of their career and enabling them to continually improve their performance.

‘The circle of life’: The role of life course in understanding job quality

This article seeks to examine the role of life course in understanding job quality. It uses a qualitative case study analysis of Australian restaurants and reveals how chefs at different life stages can subjectively perceive the same objective job characteristics differently. The findings extend pre-existing knowledge by demonstrating how workers’ subjective perceptions of job quality are shaped by their life stages.

What Predicts Job Quality of Vocational Rehabilitation Consumers Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision?

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act emphasizes promoting high-quality, competitive employment for people served by vocational rehabilitation (VR), but few studies have assessed VR consumers’ job quality. The purpose of this study was to investigate job quality and factors that predict the job quality of VR consumers with blindness or low vision (B/LV), taking into consideration their employment status at application. We utilized RSA-911 data of VR consumers with B/LV who were closed in competitive employment during 2015, creating two separate hierarchical linear models to predict job quality for VR consumers (a) who were employed at application and (b) who were not employed at application. We investigated individual-level (consumer personal characteristics and VR services) and state/agency-level predictors. Job quality and some predictors of job quality differed by employment status at application, although the strongest predictors (education level at application, gender, benefit receipt at application, receipt of a bachelor’s or higher degree) were consistent across the models. While several additional individual-level variables were significantly associated with job quality, their effect sizes were very small. With the exception of advancing education to a bachelor’s degree or higher while receiving services, consumer characteristics at application were the primary determinants of their job quality.

Digitalisation and Employees’ Subjective Job Quality in the Second Half of Working Life in Germany

Since digitalisation alters occupational task profiles via automation processes, job quality is also likely to be affected. While existing literature mainly focusses on objective job quality, this study asks if and how digitalisation is associated with employees’ subjective job quality in the second half of working life in Germany. Analyses are based on the German Ageing Survey 2014. Our sample includes n = 1541 employees aged 40–65 years who are subject to social insurance contributions. Subjective job quality is operationalised with regards to job satisfaction and perceived occupational stress in general, and ten aspects of job quality in detail. Digitalisation is approximated by substitution potentials of occupations. We control the association for compositional effects in the workforce, as well as for the moderating effect of perceived job insecurity. The results indicate that digitalisation is predominantly beneficial but also unfavourable in a few other respects for employees’ subjective job quality. The higher the degree of digitalisation, the higher is the employee’s general job satisfaction on average; for general perceived occupational stress, we find no significant association. Regarding single aspects of subjective job quality, employees working in more digitalised occupations are found to report on average higher satisfaction with working hours and earnings, and lower levels of stress due to tight schedules. However, they also report higher levels of stress due to negative environmental factors.

Changes in Job Quality as People Work Beyond Pensionable Age in Sweden

This paper uses data from the biennial Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health to examine changes in job quality among older workers, controlling for work intensity and employment characteristics. Job quality outcomes included job satisfaction and physical (dangerous, strenuous or unpleasant work) and psychosocial (job strain, effort-reward imbalance, work time control) working conditions. First difference estimation was used to analyze within-individual changes in job quality, as well as changes in hours, employment characteristics (shifting to a non-permanent contract, the private sector and self-employment) and health. Individuals who worked beyond pensionable age experienced statistically significant improvements in job quality, with larger improvements among those who reduced working hours and shifted from permanent to non-permanent contracts, from the public into the private sector, and from wage-and-salary to self-employment. We conclude that work beyond pensionable age is a distinctive period characterized by employment that becomes more flexible and rewarding and less stressful.

Is Higher Nurse Aide Retention Associated with Fewer Nursing Home Allegations and Complaints?

Consumer voices are often left out from assessments of nursing home (NH) quality. For this reason, consumer allegations and complaints against nursing homes were studied in relation to facility rates of nurse aide retention. Analyses involved means and frequencies, correlations, ANOVAs with Tukey correction to examine the independent and dependent variables (N=690). Four quartiles of retention were created. In the final models, medium, high, and extremely high retention facilities are compared to the low retention facilities. Negative binomial regressions were estimated on total, substantiated, and unsubstantiated counts of allegations and complaints. All regressions controlled for the same characteristics, including nurse aide empowerment, consistent assignment, administrator turnover, director of nursing turnover, average age of residents, and percent female. The correlation between retention and the dependent variables was negative and statistically significant (r=-0.11, p<.01). The ANOVAs showed that high retention NHs (61-72%) received significantly fewer allegations than low (0-48%) and medium (49-60%) retention NHs; they also received fewer unsubstantiated allegations, and fewer complaints, both substantiated and unsubstantiated. After controlling for other variables, each retention group was significantly related to having fewer allegations and complaints compared to the low retention NHs. Notably, high retention NHs received between 29 and 35% fewer allegations and complaints of all types. Unexpectedly, extremely high retention NHs had more allegations, complaints, and unsubstantiated allegations than high retention NHs. Policy and practice have a role to promote nurse aide retention, improve job quality, and ensure adequate support for this critical, in-demand workforce.

Post-Retirement Paid Work and Inequalities at Older Ages

Participation in paid work frequently extends beyond pensionable age, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development observing, in “Pensions at a Glance” (2017, pp. 126–7), that effective retirement ages in high-income countries exceed normal full-pension-eligibility ages by 10 months for men and two months for women. While working after pensionable age is becoming ever more common, not all workers on the cusp of retirement are able to continue in their current position or find a new job. Remarkably, little is known about the implications of unequal access to post-retirement work for social and income inequalities in later life, nor how job quality might change as people work into the years normally set aside for retirement. The four papers in this symposium address the following questions: 1) do bridge employment transitions exacerbate or mitigate income inequality later in life? 2) how does job quality (job satisfaction, physical and psychosocial working conditions) compare before and after pensionable age? 3) which processes lead to changes in working conditions in the late career? and 4) might empirical and theoretical gains be made by considering post-pensionable-age paid work as a specific career stage? The presenters use longitudinal data from the United States (the Health and Retirement Study, HRS), Sweden (Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, SLOSH), and Japan (Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement, JSTAR) complemented by interviews with older workers in Sweden. This symposium will provide insights into the nature and consequences of working after pensionable age in contrasting institutional settings.