Initiatives Addressing Precarious Employment and Its Effects on Workers’ Health and Well-Being: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The prevalence of precarious employment has increased in recent decades and aspects such as employment insecurity and income inadequacy have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify, appraise, and synthesise existing evidence pertaining to implemented initiatives addressing precarious employment that have evaluated and reported health and well-being outcomes. We used the PRISMA framework to guide this review and identified 11 relevant initiatives through searches in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and three sources of grey literature. We found very few evaluated interventions addressing precarious employment and its impact on the health and well-being of workers globally. Ten out of 11 initiatives were not purposefully designed to address precarious employment in general, nor specific dimensions of it. Seven out of 11 initiatives evaluated outcomes related to the occupational health and safety of precariously employed workers and six out of 11 evaluated worker health and well-being outcomes. Most initiatives showed the potential to improve the health of workers, although the evaluation component was often described with less detail than the initiative itself. Given the heterogeneity of the 11 initiatives regarding study design, sample size, implementation, evaluation, economic and political contexts, and target population, we found insufficient evidence to compare outcomes across types of initiatives, generalize findings, or make specific recommendations for the adoption of initiatives.

Analysis of the Return to Work Program for Disabled Workers during the Pandemic COVID-19 Using the Quality of Life and Work Ability Index: Cross-Sectional Study

“…This sheds light on how disabled people, as another disadvantaged population group, may also be impacted by similar issues, and highlights the need for policies to address the needs of various disadvantaged groups. Policy instruments such as occupational health and safety initiatives are necessary to facilitate the work resumption of disadvantaged workers during COVID-19, however, more comprehensive evaluations and implementation details are needed to determine their effectiveness [ 20 ]. The implementation of coverage under occupational injury insurance has taken the shape of a case management system which is the Return to Work program [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

A gender perspective on perceived causes of sick leave due to common mental disorders among young Swedish employees: A qualitative interview study

“…According to some of the stories they even worked illegally many hours according to Swedish law. We would claim that this fear is an expression of real-life situations, where the risk of unemployment [ 21 ] and precarious employment among young adults is a common and increasing phenomenon, and is associated with many negative health implications, including mental health problems [ 11 , 58 , 59 ].…”

Power resources and the battle against precarious employment: Trade union activities within a tripartite initiative tackling undeclared work in Sweden

“…Although there is no generally accepted definition of precarious employment, scholars agree that the construct includes multifaceted elements related to workers’ employment conditions, including: employment insecurity, inadequate financial compensation, income volatility, and lack of rights and protection in their employment relationship (Benach et al, 2007; Bodin et al, 2020; Eurofound, 2019; Kreshpaj et al, 2020). Some confusion may exist when addressing precarious employment as this construct has been used interchangeably with non-standard employment, but precarious working conditions can also be found in standard forms of employment (Gunn et al, 2022; ILO, 2016).…”

“…It does so in the context of precarious employment, where undeclared work has received only scant attention (Doellgast et al, 2018; Morgan and Pugliano, 2020). Further, it responds to an existing gap regarding evaluated initiatives addressing precarious employment (Gunn et al, 2021, 2022). By placing power resource theory in the context of undeclared work, the article also expands on its previous applications (Refslund and Arnholtz, 2021).…”