Portugal: Job quality under the spotlight in national working conditions survey

Four questions in the survey documented the experience of quantitative demands from the workers’ perspective. These questions asked about: 

Intensive work was prevalent among most workers:

Men tended to report higher levels of work intensity than women, especially on pressure related to working to tight deadlines (see Figure 2).

 

In terms of sector, the shares of workers that had to deal with emotional demands tended to be greater in female-dominated sectors. Those sectors where respondents had to deal with greater emotional demands included:

A substantial share of the workers surveyed reported working at times usually reserved for other parts of their life such as weekends, evenings and nights, as well as working shifts or having long working days (more than 10 hours). These ‘atypical’ working hours were reported as followed (Table 3).

Atypical working hours mostly affected male workers. Gender differences were nearly non-existent in terms of shift work but were greater for night work and long working days, being more prevalent among men (see Table 3).

 

Table 3: Atypical working hours, by sex (%)

Source: 2015 Working conditions survey in mainland Portugal

Work and private life

• Some 19% of women and 18% of men reported that they did not have a good fit between working hours and their family, personal or social commitments outside work.
• About one in three workers (35.5% of men and 30.7% of women) reported taking time off from their personal or family life to meet work demands (at least once a month).
• Nearly one in four workers (40.7% of men and 38.1% of women) reported that arranging to take an hour or two off during working time to take care of personal or family matters was ‘difficult’ or even ‘impossible’.
• It was also mostly men (48.3% compared with 44.4% of women) who reported not having taken parental leave due to work-related reasons (this question was asked of those who had had children and/or had adopted children in the five years prior to the survey, and declared not having taken the initial parental leave when their youngest child was born or adopted).

Table 4: Balancing professional, personal and family life, by sex (%)

Source: 2015 Working Conditions Survey in Mainland Portugal

Workers were more likely to say that the balance of their professional, personal and family life was poor if they worked nights; working shifts and long working hours were also reported to affect work–life balance (Table 5).

Table 5: Working time arrangements and balancing professional, personal and family life (%)

Source: 2015 Working conditions survey in mainland Portugal

Social environment

The term ‘social environment’ relates to the extent to which workers experience supportive social relationships from colleagues, as well as adverse social behaviour, such as bullying and harassment, and discrimination.

Social climate at work

The social climate at work was generally positive, with 81% of workers stating they had very good friends in the workplace. Furthermore, 72.6% say they felt ‘at home’ in the organisation where they worked.

Adverse social behaviour

However, there were reports of adverse social behaviour in the workplace in the 12 months prior to the survey.

• Almost 5% of workers – more women than men – reported exposure to adverse social behaviour. Episodes of physical violence, moral harassment, sexual harassment and/or intimidation/persecution were reported by 6.1% of women and 3.4% of men.
• Work-related discrimination (on grounds of age, race/ethnicity/skin colour, nationality, sex, religion, disability/incapacity, sexual orientation, take-up of parental leave, breastfeeding/lactation and/or absences related to caring for children) was felt by 5.8% of women and 2.2% of men.

Discretion

Decision latitude

A significant proportion of the workers surveyed reported having scope for decision latitude, with women experiencing greater decision latitude than men (Figure 4).

• Some 63.5% had the ability to choose or change the order of tasks.
• Some 66.9% had the ability to choose or change their methods of work.
• Some 70% had the ability to choose or change the speed or rate of work.

Figure 4: Decision latitude, by sex (%)

 

Source: 2015 Working conditions survey in mainland Portugal

The survey found that decision latitude increased with education; and female respondents were more educated – 24.1% of the women had a higher education degree, 10.1 percentage points more than the men.

Discretion also increased with qualification level, being greater among senior officials and managers, middle managers and highly qualified professionals.

Furthermore, greater scope for decision latitude was reported by workers who stated that their job offered good prospects for career advancement, as well as by those who perceived their organisation as motivating them to give their best job performance.

Organisational participation

About 44% of the workers (45% of women compared with 42.8% of men) reported being consulted before objectives were set for their work (‘always’ or ‘most of the time’). However, over 80% – again more women than men – stated that they were ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ involved in improving the work organisation or work processes of their department or organisation.

Prospects

A number of indicators are analysed under prospects: type of work contract; prospects for career advancement; job (in)security and employability; and earnings. A final reference to satisfaction with working conditions is also made.

Type of work contract

Although permanent open-ended contracts were the main form of employment contract reported by respondents (about 71% of the workers), about 27% had a different type of contract (mainly an open-ended one). A slightly higher percentage of women than men reported having an open-ended contract (71.3% and 69.9%, respectively) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Work contract, by gender (%)

 

Source: 2015 Working conditions survey in mainland Portugal

Fixed-term contracts are more common among younger workers, with more than half of those workers aged up to 35, particularly women, having a fixed-term contract.

• information and communication;
• accommodation and food service;
• arts, entertainment and recreation;
• real estate;
• construction;
• education;
• transportation and storage services;
• agriculture, forestry and fishing.

Career prospects

About one in of four workers, either women (40.6%) or men (39.6%), stated that their job offered good career advancement prospects. Reporting good career prospects increased with education and qualification level.

In terms of sector, there were gender differences in the perception of good career advancement prospects. Women agreed (‘fully agree’ and ‘agree’) that their job offered them good career prospects especially when they worked in the following sectors:

• construction;
• information and communication;
• financial and insurance activities;
• professional, scientific and technical activities;
• arts, entertainment and recreation;
• public administration.
• Job security and employability.

In the case of men, the sectors mostly perceived as offering good career prospects were: 

• electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply;
• water supply;
• sewerage, waste management and remediation activities;
• financial and insurance activities;
• other service activities.

Job security and employability

About 17% of the workers felt there was a possibility of losing their job in the six months after the survey (job insecurity). This concern was greater among those aged up to 35 (21%) (Table 6).

When asked if it would be easy to find a job with a similar salary if they were to lose or quit their current job (indicating their perceived employability), 32.9% of the male respondents, compared with 28.4% of women, agreed with this statement.

While older workers reported much less job insecurity than younger workers, their perceived level of employability was far lower.

Table 6: Job security and employability (%)

Source: 2015 Working conditions survey in mainland Portugal

Earnings

The level of earnings and the perception of fair pay are crucial elements of job quality.

Many of the workers surveyed did not think their pay was in proportion to the work they performed and the effort they expended. About 58% of women and 67% of men felt they were not paid appropriately.

Satisfaction with working conditions

The vast majority (90%) of workers, both women and men, declared they were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their working conditions.

Commentary

The working conditions survey in mainland Portugal conducted in 2015, was the first national working conditions survey implemented in Portugal since 1999–2000. ACT’s initiative in commissioning this survey was therefore welcomed, particularly by the social partners, but also by the scientific community.

When drafting this report, a request for comments and reactions to the survey was made to trade union confederations and employer organisations, as well as to ACT’s representatives on the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Safety and Health at Work. However, this commentary includes only remarks concerning the dimensions of job quality analysed above.

Three topics in the domain of job quality deserve specific attention. The first relates to the reported high level of exposure to physical risks associated with repetitive hand or arm movements. This finding substantiates the need for increased investment in this area, for example, in terms of training on ergonomics. According to the General Workers’ Union (UGT), there is a need to organise a national campaign – involving all relevant stakeholders – on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.

The second topic is exposure to psychosocial risks, and to adverse social behaviours in the workplace in particular. Some surprise was expressed, namely by UGT, at the relatively low levels of self-reported bullying/harassment and violence in the workplace in the survey. However, this may be associated with a problem of underreporting, and subsequent underestimation of the incidence of these forms of abuse in the working environments, due to either a lack of awareness about what is adverse social behaviour and/or a cultural reluctance to admit being a victim of violence or harassment.

The high level of reported satisfaction with working conditions is the third topic that attracted considerable attention from the social partners, namely by the Confederation of Portuguese Industry (CIP), as well as by the media. This finding should, however, be considered in the light of the very high unemployment in Portugal at the end of 2015. In this context, the simple fact of having a job, regardless of the working conditions offered, may have been a reason for satisfaction.

In terms of follow-up deriving from the results, some initiatives were reported as ongoing or under consideration.

ACT held a public event in April 2017 where the main findings of the survey were presented and discussed. This preceded an ongoing communication plan aiming at stimulating reflection on the main results of the survey throughout mainland Portugal.

The survey findings may also inform the monitoring of the National Strategy for Safety and Health at Work 2015–2020.

The implementation of new editions of the survey will depend on the definition of information needs at national level. In any case, particularly according to the views expressed by ACT, this instrument would benefit from being included in the national statistical system.