The Impact of Mandate Contract and Self-Employment on Workers’ Health—Evidence from Poland

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze the correlations between two clearly defined forms of non-standard employment (self-employment and mandate contract) and workers’ health. The study also addressed such variables as gender, age, length of service, and the reason for employment (voluntary vs. non-voluntary). The research was carried out in Poland in 2020 using the CATI method (a telephone interviewing technique), and it covered a sample of 200 workers (100 self-employed and 100 working under a mandate contract). Most of the respondents declared that their form of employment did not affect their health. However, the statistical analysis showed significant differences in health status between the self-employed and those working on a mandate contract. Self-employed respondents experienced mental health impacts more often, whereas those working under a mandate contract more frequently declared that their physical health was affected. The length of service was only important for mental health, having a negative impact on it. The respondents’ age and gender turned out to be statistically insignificant, which is in contradiction to many previous research findings. The inability to choose one’s form of employment resulted in worse physical health. These findings demonstrate the importance of certain variables that were not prioritized in previous studies and emphasize the need to clearly define what non-standard and precarious forms of employment are, as well as revealing new correlations between the studied categories and providing directions for further research.

Developing future competencies of people employed in non-standard forms of employment: employers’ and employees’ perspective

“…Only in the case of contracts of mandate and its impact on the employers’ investments in C4 and C6 was there confirmation of the statements, previously published in the literature on the subject, that the low employability of workers in non-standard FoEs is related to employers’ investing less in their development (Bernstrøm et al. , 2019; Piwowar-Sulej and Bąk-Grabowska, 2021).…”

“…Third, previous studies showed that people who worked based on a contract of mandate were identified as representatives of the precariat, found themselves in a much worse situation. They were less educated at the start, the contract of mandate was more often an involuntary FoE for them (Piwowar-Sulej and Bąk-Grabowska, 2021). However, this study clearly demonstrated that in the case of 6 out of 14 competencies not only FoE and education level but also other factors such as respondents’ age (physical health-related training), parental status (foreign languages courses) and industry played an important role.…”

“…However, in Poland, dependent self-employment covers both people who carry out simple tasks and highly skilled freelancers. Therefore, it is believed that even dependent self-employment provides the opportunity of developing entrepreneurship to a relatively greater extent contract of mandate (Piwowar-Sulej and Bąk-Grabowska, 2021). Self-employed individuals declare higher quality of work, as measured by parameters such as social security coverage, earnings, social dialogue, job satisfaction, and reconciling work and family life (Farne and Vergara, 2015; Vörös, 2022).…”

“…Self-employed individuals declare higher quality of work, as measured by parameters such as social security coverage, earnings, social dialogue, job satisfaction, and reconciling work and family life (Farne and Vergara, 2015; Vörös, 2022). In turn, work based on civil-law contracts may reveal to a greater extent the low labor standards related to precarious employment (Piwowar-Sulej and Bąk-Grabowska, 2021).…”

Self-employment and health inequality of migrant workers

“…Berkowitz showed that self-employed workers were more likely to be uncovered by health insurance [29]. A Polish study concluded that there were different types of health gaps between self-employed and employed workers, which was reflected in the self-employed workers were more vulnerable to mental health but the employed workers more vulnerable to physical health [30]. Searson, on the other hand, discussed that the health differences between immigrants and non-immigrants [31].…”