Time to Call it Quits? The Safety and Health of Older Workers

Abstract

The workforces of many countries are aging, creating pressure for older workers to retire later despite greater vulnerability to various occupational safety and health (OSH) risks. Some specific risks to older workers arise from age-related physical or psychological changes, while others reflect exposures to poor work organization or employment conditions. This article reviews evidence on the nature of the OSH risks faced by older workers, focusing on work ability, contingent work, and working hours. Work ability, the capacity to meet the physical, mental, and social demands of a job, has been linked to positive health outcomes for older workers. However, work characteristics seem to be more critical than workers' individual capacities. Contingent work is generally associated with poorer OSH outcomes, and older workers are more likely to be contingent, with special implications for their safety and health. There has been limited research on age and working hours, but risks for many physical and mental health problems are known to increase with shift work experience, and physiological and psychosocial changes associated with age may also increase injury risks. The authors discuss organizational practices and regulatory policies to protect and enhance the OSH of older workers.

Struggles of Older Workers at the Labour Market

“…For example, P. Bohle et al (2010) points out that the work performance of older employees depends on their health, and that the work ability, i.e. the capacity to meet the physical, mental, and social demands of a job, has been linked to positive health outcomes for older workers.…”

Precarity in late life: rethinking dementia as a ‘frailed’ old age

“…Although precarity has been widely used in other fields, in particular with regards to the workforce (Standing 2010), its application to ageing and late life is relatively new. To date the concept has been used to discuss ageing and employment (Bohle et al 2010), financial insecurity and/or exclusion of older people (Cracium and Flick 2014), disability and citizenship (Knight 2014), and to critique international trends in the G20 (Biggs 2014). In all cases, the use of precarity in gerontology and allied disciplines echo the broad application to issues of exploitation and insecurity in the labour market.…”

Precarity in late life: Understanding new forms of risk and insecurity

“…The small but growing literature that uses precarity in relation to aging or late life tends to focus on insecure employment and/or financial insecurity (Craciun & Flick, 2014;McGann et al, 2016), the limited retirement prospects of immigrant men (Hum & Simpson, 2010), and how locations such as disability for example, may force people out of the workforce, block access to the labour market, and in turn, affect late life (Bohle,Pitts, & Quinlan, 2010;D'Amours, 2009). Authors have also documented how new forms of work and technology create and sustain exclusion (Craciun & Flick, 2014), especially where disability and citizenship are concerned (Knight, 2014).…”

“…Although the prevalence of poverty among older people with disabilities is not well documented, evidence on labor force participation and poverty in earlier periods of the life course suggest that precarious trajectories may be carried into late life and create new vulnerabilities alongside aging. Disability may impede entry into the labour force, relegate individuals to precarious forms of work, and/or 'force' people out of the workforce, thereby blocking access to the labour market (Bohle et al, 2010;Vick & Lightman, 2010). In the UK, the employment rate for adults (all ages) with a disability is 49% compared with 81% for the non-disabled (Papworth Trust, 2014, p.14).…”