Returning to work after a sickness absence due to cancer: a cohort study of salaried workers in Catalonia (Spain)

Cancer incidence and survival rates have increased in the last decades and as a result, the number of working age people diagnosed with cancer who return to work. In this study the probability of accumulating days of employment and employment participation trajectories (EPTs) in a sample of salaried workers in Catalonia (Spain) who had a sickness absence (SA) due to cancer were compared to salaried workers with SA due to other diagnoses or without SA. Each individual with SA due to cancer between 2012 and 2015 was matched by age, sex, and onset of time at risk to a worker with SA due to other diagnoses and another worker without SA. Accumulated days of employment were measured, and negative binomial models were applied to assess differences between comparison groups. Latent class models were applied to identify EPTs and multinomial regression models to analyse the probability of belonging to one EPT of each group. Men and women without SA or with SA due to other diagnoses had at least a 9% higher probability of continuing in employment compared to workers who had a SA due to cancer, especially among men without SA (adjusted IRR 1.27, 95% CI 1.06‒1.53). Men without SA had the highest probability of having high stable EPT compared to workers who had a SA due to cancer (adjusted RRR 3.21, 95% CI 1.87‒5.50). Even though workers with SA due to cancer continue working afterwards, they do it less often than matched controls and with a less stable employment trajectory. Health and social protection systems should guaranty cancer survivors the opportunity to continue voluntary participation in the labour market.

Returning to Work After a Sickness Absence Due to Cancer: A Cohort Study of Salaried Workers in Catalonia (Spain)

Background: Cancer incidence and survival rates have increased in the last decades and as a result, the number of working age people diagnosed with cancer who return to work. In this study the probability of accumulating days of employment and employment participation trajectories (EPTs) in a sample of salaried workers in Catalonia (Spain) who had a sickness absence (SA) due to cancer were compared to salaried workers with SA due to other diagnoses or without SA.Methods: Each individual with SA due to cancer between 2012-2015 was matched by age, sex, and time at risk to a worker with SA due to other diagnoses and another worker without SA. Accumulated days of employment were measured, and negative binomial Poisson models were applied to assess differences between comparison groups. Latent class models were applied to identify EPTs and multinomial regression models to analyse the probability of belonging to one EPT of each group.Results: Men and women without SA or with SA due to other diagnoses had at least a 9% higher probability of continuing in employment compared to workers who had an SA due to cancer, especially among men without SA (adjusted IRR 1.27, 95% CI: 1.06‒1.53). Men without SA had the highest probability of having high stable EPT compared to workers who had an SA due to cancer (adjusted RRR 3.21, 95% CI: 1.87‒5.50). Conclusions: Even though workers with SA due to cancer continue working after an SA, they do it less often than matched controls and with a less stable employment trajectory. Health and social protection systems should guaranty cancer survivors the opportunity to continue voluntary participation in the labour market.

Motivation and the careers of agricultural entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast

Purpose Following an incursion into the business world as an entrepreneur, many people go back to being salaried workers or unemployed. Using self-determination theory (SDT), this study aims to test the effects of self-determined motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs on career retention, career satisfaction and subjective well-being. Design/methodology/approach The sample under study consisted of 171 agricultural entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast who owned their businesses. Research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. Findings The findings reveal that the degree of self-determination in the motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs does not have a direct effect on their intention as to whether or not to remain an entrepreneur. The findings nevertheless show that the more the degree of motivation of Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs is self-determined, the greater satisfaction they experience with their entrepreneurial career and the higher their subjective well-being. The findings also show that satisfaction with the entrepreneurial career is a predictor of career retention among Ivorian agricultural entrepreneurs. In addition, career retention and subjective well-being are reciprocally linked, as are subjective well-being and career satisfaction. Practical implications Career retention of agricultural entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast can be achieved through career satisfaction and self-determined motivation. Originality/value Based on previous studies on SDT in an organizational context, this study is, to the best of the knowledge, the first to have tested a theoretical model that can explain career retention, career satisfaction and subjective well-being among entrepreneurs. This research brings to light these processes among agricultural entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast.

Supporting Self-Employed Cancer Survivors to Continue Working: Experiences of Social Welfare Counsellors and Survivors

Few studies have investigated the support needed or received by self-employed cancer survivors to continue working. In Norway, the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) is responsible for supporting people both practically and financially to continue or return to work following ill health. Social welfare counsellors (NAV counsellors) are responsible for guiding workers in their effort to return to work. This study aimed to investigate NAV counsellors’ experiences of supporting self-employed cancer survivors. We also report how self-employed people experienced the support they received from NAV during and after cancer treatment. We conducted individual in-depth interviews among seven self-employed cancer survivors and seven NAV counsellors with experience in supporting self-employed cancer survivors. The survivors experienced NAV as largely absent and considered that the support offered was not very useful. The NAV counsellors stated that self-employed workers are in a difficult situation and that regulations and means of support were primarily designed to fit salaried workers. While they felt they were supposed to function as an “employer” for the self-employed, they found this difficult because of lack of time, expertise and means for supporting self-employed. These findings suggest that the social welfare system in Norway is not adapted to support sick self-employed people appropriately.

Low-Wage Workers and the Enforceability of Noncompete Agreements

We exploit the 2008 Oregon ban on noncompete agreements (NCAs) for hourly-paid workers to provide the first evidence on the impact of NCAs on low-wage workers. We find that banning NCAs for hourly workers increased hourly wages by 2%–3% on average. Since only a subset of workers sign NCAs, scaling this estimate by the prevalence of NCA use in the hourly-paid population suggests that the effect on employees actually bound by NCAs may be as great as 14%–21%, though the true effect is likely lower due to labor market spillovers onto those not bound by NCAs. Whereas the positive wage effects are found across the age, education, and wage distributions, they are stronger for female workers and in occupations where NCAs are more common. The Oregon low-wage NCA ban also improved average occupational status in Oregon, raised job-to-job mobility, and increased the proportion of salaried workers without affecting hours worked. This paper was accepted by Lamar Pierce, organizations.

School Management from the Perspective of Social Transformations at Work

In this article we intend to address the context of the school routine that is governed by rules developed by the sectors responsible for school management. In the bureaucratization of school work we see the same meaning and dimensions as the bureaucratization of other sectors of production. As the training of the workforce was transferred to the school, this institution incorporated in its organization and functioning new elements and fundamental characteristics to achieve a good performance as a socializing agency for the worker. On the other hand, the figure of the autonomous teacher, of the humanist, encyclopedist type, has also disappeared. Whether in public education or in the private network, the vast majority of teachers are in the condition of salaried workers. In this way, the process of proletarianization of teaching workers is characterized, characterized by their working conditions. The division of school work, as it developed based on the same principles as the so-called management theories, reinforces the reproduction of capitalist logic in school pedagogical practice because new practices and relationships are crystallized in this practice.

Partial Correlation Analysis of Association between Subjective Well-Being and Ecological Footprint

A spatial-temporal panel dataset was collected from 101 countries during 2006–2016. Using partial correlation (PC) and ordinary correlation (OR) analyses, this research examines the relationship between ecological footprint (EF) and subjective well-being (SWB) to measure environmental impacts on people’s happiness. Gross domestic product (GDP), urbanization rate (UR), literacy rate (LR), youth life expectancy (YLE), wage and salaried workers (WSW), political stability (PS), voice accountability (VA) are regarded as control variables. Total bio-capacity (TBC), ecological crop-land footprints (ECL), ecological grazing-land footprint (EGL), and ecological built-up land footprint (EBL) have significant positive influences on SWB, but ecological fish-land (EFL) has significant negative influences on SWB. Ecological carbon footprint (ECF) is significantly negatively related to SWB in developed countries. An increase in the amount of EF factors is associated with a country’s degree of development. Political social–economic impacts on SWB disguised environmental contribution on SWB, especially CBF impacts on SWB. The use of PC in examining the association between SWB and EF helps bridge a knowledge gap and facilitate a better understanding of happiness.

Agriculture 4.0? Studying the evidence for automation in Chilean agriculture

In recent decades, computing-based technologies have been large contributors to the current digital and knowledge economy. This process has led to changes in the structure of employment and variations in relative wages across workers in skill distribution, with computing-based technologies representing the technological shift shaping current and future labor demand. In this regard, how job tasks might be replaced or complemented by computing-based technologies becomes a new and critical aspect in explaining how technological progress drives labor demand. Agriculture, as well as other sectors, has taken advantage of this technical progress, with emergent technologies contributing to the shift toward Agriculture 4.0. In the case of Chile, the evidence points to an overall reduction in the agricultural labor force and to an increase in the relative number of salaried workers within agriculture, particularly those in temporary jobs. However, nothing has been said about the types of tasks being performed in the sector, its evolution over time, and its relationship with automation. If agriculture is under a technological upgrading process, then we should expect the reduction in the number of salaried workers to be accompanied by an increase in the relative skillset of those still in the industry performing non-routine tasks. Contrary to what one might expect, our results suggest that the participation of routine tasks in agriculture has only increased over time, pointing to a low adoption of computing-based technologies compared to other economic sectors within the Chilean economy.