Working conditions of non-standard workers
Publicat: 6 December 2009
Methodological changes introduced in the last Spanish Working Conditions Survey – that is, collecting data only among workers and conducting interviews in the worker’s home instead of at the workplace – allowed gathering information on several, previously ignored groups of workers. This includes self-employed workers, migrant workers, household services workers, workers on sick leave and those who are not registered with the Spanish social security system.
The Spanish National Health and Safety at Work Institute has conducted a study shedding light on the working conditions of certain groups of workers, including self-employed workers, those who are not registered with social security, migrant workers and workers on sick leave. Based on data from the Sixth National Survey on Working Conditions, the findings show that self-employed workers benefit of a lower risk profile than all of the other groups under examination.
About the study
Methodological changes introduced in the last Spanish Working Conditions Survey – that is, collecting data only among workers and conducting interviews in the worker’s home instead of at the workplace – allowed gathering information on several, previously ignored groups of workers. This includes self-employed workers, migrant workers, household services workers, workers on sick leave and those who are not registered with the Spanish social security system.
Therefore, the National Health and Safety at Work Institute (Instituto Nacional de Seguridad e Higiene en el Trabajo, INSHT) commissioned a Study on the working and health conditions of emerging groups of workers (in Spanish, 541Kb PDF) based on data from the Sixth National Survey on Working Conditions (VI Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Trabajo) (see also the EWCO report on the survey findings). The study was carried out by the Health at Work Research Centre (Centro de Investigación en Salud Laboral, Cisal) at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona in Catalonia and the University Hospital of Tenerife (Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria).
INSHT sought to shed light on the working conditions of newly emerging groups of workers in the Spanish labour market – such as migrant workers, self-employed workers, those working in household services, workers on sick leave and workers without social security. The study focused in particular on the risks that these groups of workers are exposed to at work and on the impact of such risks on their health.
Working conditions of emerging groups of workers
According to the study’s findings, the composition of the newly emerging groups of workers varies greatly. For instance, migrant workers make up the largest proportion of workers without social security (39.7%), compared with all of the other groups of workers. The difference is particularly significant when compared with the group of self-employed workers with employees, in which migrant workers only account for 6.1%. A large proportion of household services workers (17.5%) is also not registered with social security. On the other hand, workers on sick leave are most frequent among the group of salaried workers who are registered with social security, at 3.9%, compared with the other groups under examination.
Composition of emerging group of workers in Spanish labour market (%)
Source: INHS, 2008, p.46 (based on dataset of Sixth National Survey on Working Conditions)
Self-employed workers
The group of self-employed workers with employees comprises mainly men (73.2%), who are aged between 35 and 44 years (30.8%) and of Spanish nationality (93.9%). Workers in this category clearly show a more favourable risk profile than salaried workers, particularly in relation to ergonomic and psychosocial risks. Similarly, the group of self-employed workers without employees also mainly comprise men (64.8%), aged 34–44 years old (31.3%) and Spanish nationals (90.8%). They are also exposed to fewer risks at work than average, for example regarding safety, hygiene and psychosocial risk factors.
Workers without social security
This group of workers comprises fewer male workers (56.4%) than the previous groups. Workers in this group are younger than the average age of the other groups of workers – 62.1% are between 16 and 34 years of age. Most of the workers in this group are Spanish, although there is a much greater presence of migrant workers (39.7%).
Workers who are not registered with social security constitute the group with the most deficient working conditions, compared with the group of workers with social security. They are particularly exposed to ergonomic risks, but above all to psychosocial risks. In addition, workers in this group are more frequently subject to harassment and violence at work.
Migrant workers
The group of migrant workers shows a relatively homogeneous distribution in terms of gender (57.5% men, 42.5% women). The majority of workers in this group are young, with 54.4% of them aged between 16 and 34 years old. According to the Working Conditions Survey findings, a considerable proportion of migrant workers are not registered with social security (12.3%) – a fact that would require further research on this particular group of workers.
Migrant workers show a health and safety profile that is much worse than that of Spanish nationals, both in relation to ergonomic and psychosocial risks as well as to all types of discrimination. However, they indicate less frequently negative health effects related to work than Spanish workers.
Workers on sick leave
This group refers to all kinds of workers on sick leave. Their prevalence according to gender is relatively similar, with 3.9% of male workers and 3% of female workers on sick leave. Nonetheless, the proportion of workers on sick leave increases with age – that is, from 2.7% among young workers to 4.6% among older workers. It is also higher for Spanish nationals, at 3.7% compared with 2.5% for non-Spanish nationals.
This group of workers indicates a much higher occurrence of negative work-related health effects compared with the other groups of workers. In particular, they report suffering from officially recognised occupational illnesses.
Commentary
The new methodology of the Spanish National Working Conditions Survey, based on interviewing workers in their home, has allowed gaining a better understanding of several groups of workers in the Spanish labour market, on whom information was previously scarce. While self-employed workers show a generally favourable profile in terms of risk factors, other groups of workers – such as those without social security and migrant workers – are clearly exposed to higher risk factors, working in poorer conditions than average.
Antonio Corral, Ikei
Eurofound recomandă ca această publicație să fie citată după cum urmează.
Eurofound (2009), Working conditions of non-standard workers, article.
