Employers’ willingness to invest in workers’ health

Maciek DobrasInGRID Seminar, 11.12.2015 (HIVA)

Contents

OSH in the EU overview of OSH in PL presentation of the project

work carried out in HIVA further steps and interview strategy

discussion

Overview of OSH in the EU (I)

OSH= ‘working environment’ + ‘health’ main legislative instrument are the OSH

Directives, including the FD 391/89/EEC minimum level of protection against work-related

risks, common processes & mechanisms possible to go beyond, but not below 2 approaches: process-driven vs prescriptive 3 different OSH strategies

Medical

Technical & organizatio

nal

Psychosocial

Overview of OSH strategies in the EU (II)Biomedical Environmental Holistic

Means of influence

Legislativ

e

Technical

& process

Medical

Approach

Countries

Source: Kopias (2001), Walters (2013), OSHWIKI (2015) and LEGOSH (2015)

Overview of OSH strategies in the EU (III)Biomedical Environmental Holistic

Means of influence

Legislativ

e

many regulations,

poor execution, obligation-control-fine

less detailed, legal measures

replaced with economic incentives

of ‘framework’ character, room for

negotiations between employers

and workers

Technical

& process

used but not as a priority

measure

modernisation of work equipment

and soft measures (work

organization)

treated together, in light of health other,

non-work related health determinants;

participatory approach towards OSH with active

involvement of many players

Medical

dominant role, fit-for-work

examinations

seldom used, multidisciplinary OHS in operation,

advisors

Approach prescriptive process- oriented

Countries Post-communist

Western & Southern Europe

Central Europe, Scandinavian

Overview of OSH in the EU Are sickness

absences routinely analysed with a view to improving working conditions?

Biomedical:~25-30%

EU: 51%

Source: ESENER2 (2014)

Overview of OSH in the EU An expert

dealing with the ergonomic design and set up of workplaces

Biomedical:~15%

EU:34%

Source: ESENER2 (2014)

Overview of OSH in the EU Does your

establishment have a plan to prevent work related stress?

Biomedical:~10-15%

EU: 34%

Overview of OSH in the EU Ability to do the

same job at the age of 60.

Biomedical:~50%

EU: 59%

Source: EWCS (2010)

Overview of OSH in the EU Does your work

affect your health negatively?

Biomedical:~35+%

EU: 25%

Source: EWCS (2010)

Overview of the Polish OSH system

unlike any other OSH system in the EU 2 domains (work safety & hygiene, occupational

medicine) no OHS (as per ILO Co. 161) but two independent

services with very little cooperation and coordination between the two (especially the case in SMEs)

compulsory prophylactic medical examinations (PMEs)

About the project

Employers’ willingness to invest in workers’ health

Aim of the research: learn about the factors, which determine whether or not employers decide to invest in workers’ health (only PMEs or more)

Materials and methods: literature review, online questionnaire and telephone interviews

Dissemination: publications State of the art: data collection To be done: interviews, data analysis and

dissemination

Work carried out at HIVA (I)

translation of the online questionnaire dichotomisation of variables, data coding,

labelling & cluster analysis initial interpretation of the results choice of questions for further interviews preparation of an article on health literacy and

PMEs (in Polish, submitted)

At HIVA: 8 variables included in the CA

re: acceptance of OSH obligations (Q1) re: acceptance of PME costs of (Q2) re: presence of a written contract for PMEs (Q6) re: presence of any other medical activities (Q9) re: presence of any other non-medical activities

(Q11) re: appropriateness of the workplace (Q16) re: appropriateness of the employer (Q17) re: supportiveness of current conditions (Q18)

At HIVA: CA- dendrogram

At HIVA: results of the CAVar. Cluster

1Cluster II Cluster

IIICluster

IVCluster

VCluster

VI

1. obligations

0 0.29 0 0.69 1 1

2. costs 0 0.86 0.19 0.5 0.56 0.29

3. contract 1 1 0 0.94 0.78 0.71

4. extra medical

0.13 0 0 0.69 0 0

5. extra non-

medical

0 0.86 0.06 0.88 0 0

6. workplace

0.2 0.57 0.38 0.88 0.89 0

7. employer

0 0 0.25 0.94 0.89 0.14

8. state support

0 0 0.06 0.25 0.11 0

Count 15 7 16 16 9 7

Name Sceptics

Contestants

Avoiders

Doers Keeners Compliers

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 1Var. Cluster 1

1. Obligations

0

2. Costs 0

3. Contract 1

4. Extra medical

0.13

5. Extra non-medical

0

6. Workplace 0.2

7. Employer 0

8. State support

0

Count 15

Name Sceptics

employers is not the right person to take care of OSH issues nor other health related activities

too many regulations, no belief in the state or workplace

Supposed links with: lower level of education, SME sector

Company: Ubezpieczenia PL

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 2Var. Cluster 1I

1. Obligations

0.29

2. Costs 0.86

3. Contract 1

4. Extra medical

0

5. Extra non-medical

0.86

6. Workplace 0.57

7. Employer 0

8. State support

0

Count 7

Name Contestants

strains are felt, responsibility for OSH and workers’ health should not be on employers,

workplace seems an appropriate place for such actions

Supposed links with: young companies, decently educated

Company: Vita Med Gdynia

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 3Var. Cluster III

1. Obligations

0

2. Costs 0.19

3. Contract 0

4. Extra medical

0

5. Extra non-medical

0.06

6. Workplace 0.38

7. Employer 0.25

8. State support

0.06

Count 16

Name Avoiders

employer is not the right person to take care of OSH issues, responsibility elswhere

no regard for OSH obligations

Supposed links with: SME sector

Company: Dasyacht

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 4Var. Cluster IV

1. Obligations

0.69

2. Costs 0.5

3. Contract 0.94

4. Extra medical

0.69

5. Extra non-medical

0.88

6. Workplace 0.88

7. Employer 0.94

8. State support

0.25

Count 16

Name Doers

question V1 and V2 still accept status quo and

go beyond PMEs

Supposed links with: leadership, large, possibly foreign companies with own OSH policies

Company: Cemex

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 5Var. Cluster V

1. Obligations

1

2. Costs 0.56

3. Contract 0.78

4. Extra medical

0

5. Extra non-medical

0

6. Workplace 0.89

7. Employer 0.89

8. State support

0.11

Count 9

Name Keeners

accept state-of-the-art recognize the importance

& appropriateness of V6 & V7

keen to do more but under more supportive conditions

Supposed links with: higher level of education, medium-sized enterprises

Company: Dartex

At HIVA: initial interpretation- Cluster 6Var. Cluster VI

1. Obligations

1

2. Costs 0.29

3. Contract 0.71

4. Extra medical

0

5. Extra non-medical

0

6. Workplace 0

7. Employer 0.14

8. State support

0

Count 7

Name Compliers

in principle only obey by minimum requirements,

costs are an issue

Supposed links with: SME sector

Company: Amtest

Examples of questions for interviews

Cluster Question

Obligations/responsibilit

y

Costs

Suport

1 (Sceptics)Do you think the employer should be held responsible for safeguarding OSH at all, including bearing the costs? Why (not)?

+ +

2 (Contestants)

Can I confirm that you contest the Polish OSH system? In what way is it weak? Would you be interested in OSH if the approach was more process-oriented instead of being merely prescriptive?

+ +

3 (Avoiders)

From your answers to the online questionnaire it seems you have little regard for the necessity to have a written contract for PMEs. Is this correct? Why? Is it because of the associated costs or do you think it should not be your responsibility?

+ +

4 (Doers)Is there a plan for the evaluation of additional activities you are undertaking? Why (Y/N) What are the effects? Please rate the costs of additional activities you offer.

+ +

5 (Keeners)

What conditions should be met by the state to expect a fuller engagement in OSH activities from you? More advice (from which entities/services?) or greater participation of the workers?

? ? +

6 (Compliers)

What is your main motivation to comply with existing regulations? Why do you think the system is fair as it is?

+ +

Other tasks & future steps

completion of an article (submitted; in Polish), in which I argue that low interest in additional health related activities/infringements of the law as regards PMEs may be due to poor health literacy of the main actors

future steps: follow-up on the online questionnaire, pilot the telephone questionnaire, identify and approach employers representative of the different clusters and interview them, write-up

Thank you for your attention &

and a very supportive and inspiring stay HIVA!