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Abstract Background Absenteeism is consistently higher in public than in private organizations, as is the use of part-time employment. The aim of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship between part-time work and sickness absence at the organizational level. Methods The data is a six-year panel for the full population of Norwegian municipalities (N = 422), linking objective register data on both part-time employment and sickness absence. Using OLS regression with fixed effects for municipality and time, we estimate the statistical effects of the municipalities’ use of part-time work on sickness absence. Results The bivariate correlation between percentage position at the municipal level and percentage sickness absence is positive and significant (Pearson’s r = .25, sig LE 0.01). When controlling for fixed effects for municipality and time, as well as municipality economy, municipality size, ratio of female employees in the municipality and characteristics of the general population, the multivariate regression coefficient is still positive but insignificant (coefficient = 1.56, robust standard error = 1.31). Conclusions The main findings are that the organizations’ use of part-time work is unrelated to sickness absence indicating that organizations with extensive use of part-time work do not experience higher levels of absenteeism than those having less extensive use of part-time employees.

Introduction: The possibility of balancing career and family is meanwhile a central concern for most physicians when choosing a job. The aim of this study was to identify current barriers and opportunities for physician education and career planning.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted as an online survey between 11/2021 and 02/2022 and targeted physicians at all career levels in Germany who were members of a clinical professional association. Alternative and consent questions were used to assess experiences/attitudes toward various aspects of life and career planning, as well as alternative work and parental leave models, depending on gender, specialty, and hierarchical level.Results: The majority of the 2060 participants were female (69%) and had children (66%). Many childless residents reported that they felt they had to choose between children and a career. The majority of female residents, specialists and attending physicians (Ø 55.5%) stated that they had experienced career losses as a result of taking parental leave, while most men did not share this experience (Ø 53.7%). 92% of all participants agreed with the statement that men and women have different career opportunities. Job-sharing models were considered feasible at all levels of the hierarchy by an average of 55.6% of all medical executives. Conclusion: Parenthood and the use of parental leave and part-time work appear to have a significant impact on the career paths of those surveyed. Although the majority of directors of medical training programs are open to job-sharing models, further measures are needed in order to equalize career opportunities for men and women.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a great challenge, especially for families. We aimed to analyze the impact of the pandemic on childcare for and the work–family balance of pediatric surgeons in Germany. An anonymized questionnaire on the working and familial situation before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was sent to the members of the German Society of Pediatric Surgery and trainees in pediatric surgery (April–July 2021). One-hundred-fifty-three participants (59% female) completed the questionnaire. A total of 16% of the males and 62% of the females worked part-time. Most (68%) had underage children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 36% reported a decrease in patients and interventions, and 55% reported an increase in the organizational work-related burden. Childcare for underage children during lockdown was organized mainly with the help of institutional emergency childcare (45%), staying home (34%), one parent working from a home office (33%), or staying home by themselves (34%). Before the lockdown, 54% reported a good work–family balance. During the lockdown, this worsened by 42%. Most of the families had to organize themselves. Different means such as a home office, flexible working hours, and different models for childcare can help to improve the situation.

The issue of wage inequality between men and women is widely discussed today. Different developments in individual EU countries characterize different wage values between men and women. As the empirical literature shows, the causes of the gender pay gap are not clear. The paper aimed to examine whether the level of education attained and the type of working hours can affect the value of the gender pay gap in EU countries from 2006 to 2020. Using the GMM method and Granger's causality test, it was possible to find that the selected variables focused on educational attainment and type of employment did not explain any part of the gender pay gap in most cases. These results could be related to the fact that education is available for both sexes practically without significant restrictions. In some workplaces, a minimum percentage of women may be required. The quality of parental leave policy, the daycare system, and the legislative protection of women on parental or maternity leave, which have affected the labor market situation, may be important. These findings indicate that there may be other variables that may affect the values of the gender pay gap in the analyzed regions of the European Union. Granger causality in the opposite direction is attributed to significant labor flows.

The rapid change in working models establishes a new workforce structure and working systems. This situation creates the problem of unregistered employment and atypical work by individualising business dealing. Economic, social and technological developments, especially in the 1970s, have impacted working life worldwide, and atypical employment forms and working models have gradually replaced typical employment types. Being flexibile, it is aimed to adjust the working days and hours according to the demand differences and changes in the market, sustainability of the enterprises, increase in productivity and employment, and the establishment of the work and life balance of the employees. However, with the spread of flexibility practices over time and the intensification of atypical working styles, some losses have begun to occur in employees’ vested rights regarding working conditions. Informal work causes another problem, such as unorganised and irregular labour. The purpose of the study is to examine the problems caused by atypical work. The research used descriptive statistical method since it is convenient to follow the developments in a particular field and identify the factual situations. The authors have collected data from World Labour Organisation and OECD sources and analysed these collected data according to descriptive statistical techniques. Using the trend analysis method, the authors have analysed the workforce structure and union density change in the analysed period based on numerical data. The research has established that atypical work causes insufficient instrumentality and status problems in the study period and disorganisation of labour. Based on research results, it can be stated that such working models as teleworking, working from home, and atypical work may lead to various social and psychological problems in the future

The article analyses the prevalence of part-time employment in different EU countries with a focus on the factors affecting the rate of part-time employment across the EU. Based on the literature review, a distinction is made between three groups of factors that are relevant for the rate of part-time employment, in particular, cyclical factors, political and institutional factors, and structural factors. The article analyses how these factors influence part-time employment rates in EU countries. The linear regression analysis based on EU-28 macroeconomic data for the period of 2007-2018 has shown that all three groups of determinants (i.e. cyclical, political and institutional as well as structural factors) affect the rate of part-time employment in the EU-28. Part-time employment is a complex phenomenon which depends on a number of factors. However, the regression analysis has found that the following political and institutional as well as structural independent variables are also significant predictors of part-time employment rates in EU Member States (EU-28): average annual wages, the tax rate on low wage earners, expenditures on children and family benefits as a percentage of gross domestic product, trade union density, and the activity rate of people aged 15-24 and 55-64. Cyclical factors (the unemployment rate in Model (1) and real GDP per capita in Model (2)) have also been found to have a significant effect on part-time employment in EU-28 countries.

The article is aimed at valuating the experience of using mixed modes in the context of the COVID-2019 pandemic based on the results of sociological studies as well as substantiating the potential for the development of legal and regulatory provision. In the context of the pandemic, many enterprises switched to remote work and the working hours changed. For Ukraine, this is a new experience in implementing online work and a more flexible working day, so it is important to study this issue. During the COVID-2019 pandemic, enterprises faced the only legal opportunity to organize their activities through work at home. The authors carried out a sociological study on the use of mixed modes in the context of the COVID-2019 pandemic, which found out that 69.6% of respondents work remotely, 60.9% work on a flexible schedule, and 43.5% of respondents account for part-time work. 73.9% of the respondents faced mixed working modes. Regarding the preparedness of business owners to work in the new conditions, it is found out that the majority of respondents are satisfied with how their organization has switched to a remote or mixed form of work. Remote work can be combined with other modes, such as part-time or flexible working hours and full-time work. This combination can be considered as a mixed working time mode. According to the outcome of sociological researches, the use of mixed working hours is already a common reality, not an exception. Use of them has its own peculiarities in various spheres of activity, which requires further research. The survey identified the respondents both satisfied and dissatisfied with mixed working hours. It should be noted about the available potential to improve the legal and organizational-economic principles of using mixed modes of working time organization.

Non-standardization of employment has become the main trend of the labour markets in the globalized economy. Attempting to enhance the flexibility of employment relations the legislators in BRICS countries are also the part of this trend. The forms of the nonstandard employment are numerous, the present paper concentrates upon the following ones: temporary employment, part-time and multi-party employment relationship. The authors review the experience of four BRICS countries in regulating non-standard forms of employment and determine what were the specific reasons for adopting them in Russia, China, Brazil, and South Africa. The national parts are introduced by the consideration of the international standards of protection of employees working under non-standard contracts. It is argued that even though these four states did not ratify the ILO Convention No. 181 Private Employment Agencies Convention (1997) and only Russia ratified ILO Part-Time Work Convention (No. 175), the ILO approach has influenced the development of national regulations. Though the equal treatment of all workers is lacking in many aspects of employment relations. In the national parts the authors trace the changes in employment law which reflect the pursuit of flexibilization of the labour market and, as in Brazil, the need to formalize employment relations.

The standard measure of poverty at work in Europe is the in-work at-risk-of poverty rate published by Eurostat. According to this indicator, the working poor in Southern Europe have somehow been affected by the financial crisis of 2008 and the Eurozone debt crisis that followed in 2010. Spain, Italy and Portugal display rates ranging between 9% and 10% in 2007 compared to 11% - 13% in 2017. In Greece, in-work poverty declined from 14% in 2007 to 11% ten years later. Such a result may be surprising in the context of the austerity policy measures that marked the decade in this area of Europe. Using EU-SILC 2005-2018 microdata, this article aims to extend Eurostat's rates of in-work at-risk-of poverty in several ways. First, poverty lines are computed so as to be anchored in time: each of the four national poverty thresholds is set at 2008. Second, the statistical population of workers is expanded to include the people displaying weak ties to the labour market but still in the exercise of remunerated activities at some point of the year. Third, the black box of the household approach is opened thanks to Ponthieux's concept of poverty in earned income. Fourth, the poverty headcount ratios are supplemented by the two other measures that Sen suggested to adopt on a regular basis: the poverty gap (the economic distance separating the income of the poor from the poverty line) and the Gini index measuring how unequal the income distribution of the poor may be. Once those technical details are fixed, the question of working poverty is addressed over time (before and after the Great Recession) under its three fundamental dimensions: the labour-market, the family net, and the state institutions

The functioning of modern economy has imposed changes in all spheres of society, including labor law. The institute of flexibility was announced as a solution for unemployment, which enables the employee to adapt to the needs of the employer and the market conditions in respect to working hours and manner of work. Flexible work is seen as an entry ticket for the labor market for harder employable categories such as youth and persons with disabilities, while mothers were enabled to balance between family life and career. This type of work has certain advantages and disadvantages, which are the focus of this paper. The author has specifically studied part-time work as an increasingly frequent contract of this type, pointing to the risk of discrimination against this category of workers and the need for their protection.

Objective: This paper pursues the question as to how extended flexible working possibilities in the labor market are legitimized among employers and employees and whether they have potential to mitigate inequalities. Background: Persistent and increasing gendered inequalities in Austria are reflected in the unequal division of unpaid family work in parental couples and in men’s stable full-time employment while women increasingly work part-time. In recent years, employers have expanded flexible working possibilities for all employees, regardless of their gender, also in leading positions and especially for those with family responsibilities. Method: We conducted six focus groups and 16 semi-structured interviews with employers (n=30) and employees (n=25) from 29 contrasting companies across Austria. An in-depth reconstructive analysis facilitated our exploration of collective notions and concepts associated with flexible work and career opportunities. Results: The respondents constructed part-time and flexible work as a new norm strongly connected to women with (potential) children. At the same time, employers and employees legitimized that these women must be protected from penalties resulting from the ideal worker norm still in force and must be variously supported by employers. However, men – the partners of women they could support by making use of these options and taking over childcare – are not constructed as a target group. Conclusion: In a cultural context such as Austria, family-friendly flexible working opportunities perpetuate rather than level gendered inequalities, as men’s need for those opportunities do not emerge in the constructions. The lack thereof is neither explicitly addressed nor challenged.

Part-time work is a common work arrangement in the United States that can be precarious, insecure, and lacking opportunities for advancement. In turn, part-time work, especially involuntary part-time work, tends to be associated with worse health outcomes. Although prior research documents heterogeneity in the health consequences of precarious work across countries, we do not know whether state-level institutional contexts shape the association between part-time work and self-rated health in the United States. Using data from the Current Population Survey (2009–2019; n = 813,077), the present study examined whether linkages between part-time work and self-rated health are moderated by state-level social policies and contexts. At the population level, we document differences in the prevalence of fair/poor health among part-time workers across states. For instance, 21% of involuntary part-time workers reported fair/poor health in West Virginia compared to 7% of involuntary part-time workers in Massachusetts. Findings also provide evidence that voluntary (β =.51) and involuntary (β=.57) part-time work is associated with greater odds of fair/poor health among individuals. Moreover, the association between voluntary part-time work and self-rated health is weaker for individuals living in states with higher amounts for maximum unemployment insurance, higher minimum wage, and lower income inequality. State-level policies did not moderate the association between involuntary part-time work and health. The present study points to the need to mitigate the health consequences of part-time work with social policies that enhance the health of workers.

The comment deals with the part-time work regulation, contained, in particular, in Part II of the JustEatTakeaway supplementary company agreement. The use of this instrument is expected to be massive, considering that it is, in the parties' plans, the common form of work in the company. The author analyses the provisions contained in the collective agreement, especially in the light of the discipline contained in the CCNL Logistica, Trasporto, Merci e Spedizione and in the Protocol signed on 18 July 2018 for the same sector. The author also discusses the rules on overtime and supplementary work and the rules on intermittent work, which are also subject to specific contractual regulations.

There is growing demand for a clearer understanding of whether precarious work is a social determinant of health (1‒5) and whether non-standard workers with less job security are more vulnerable to adverse safety and health outcomes. In their systematic review published in the current issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health, Koranyi et al (6) define “precarious employment” as a multidimensional set of unfavorable work characteristics experienced in various degrees by workers with the common denominator of loss of security in some domain. Their review makes an important contribution to this area by summarizing the existing scientific research on the relationship between precarious work and risk of occupational injury. As a vulnerable working population, precarious workers have consistently been a topic of concern since the late 1980s (5, 7). Yet the review by Koranyi et al (6) demonstrates unequivocally the paucity of research studies performed over the last two decades addressing the subject. Four dimensions of precarious work were defined in the study and these, along with their corresponding search constructs, form the basis of the review and include (i) length of employment (exposed or not to: temporary employment, casual employment, working for subcontractor or temp agency, hourly pay); (ii) at work characteristics (exposed or not to: work time control, fixed work schedule); (iii) income (exposed or not to: part time, multiple jobs, wages), and (iv) labor rights (exposed or not to: insurance benefits, unionization, job insecurity precarious career). Given the wide range of search terms used, it was surprising that only 80 research articles were identified for full review following searches in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases (articles published 1997‒2017), and only 17 articles were selected following full review to form the scientific basis of the evidence between precarious work and risk of work-related injury. Most of the selected studies demonstrated that there is likely a positive association between these dimensions of precarious work and work-related injury. However, it remains unclear whether the “loss of security” is a characteristic of non-standard work (multiple job holding, or part-time, temporary or contract work) that increases the risk of a work-related injury. Most studies evaluated non-standard work characteristics as implicit of precarious work but did not directly address the question. Three studies were found that focused on factors directly related to “loss of security”: lack of insurance benefits (8), job insecurity (9), and precarious career (10). Of these factors, two had statistically significant associations with work-related injury [eg, insurance benefits, risk ratio (RR)/odds ratio (OR) 1.50 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.19‒1.88), and precarious career RR/OR 1.41 (95% CI 1.34‒1.48)]; however, job insecurity showed a positive, but non- significant association, RR/OR of 1.55. Work in multiple jobs and working for temporary agencies were the two areas of non-standard work arrangements providing the strongest evidence of elevated risk of work-related injury. All four studies on multiple job holding (11‒14) reported increased risk of work-related injury when working in multiple jobs as compared with single jobs (with 3 of the 4 being statistically significant). Dong et al`s longitudinal study (12) demonstrated a strong dose‒response relationship where every additional job resulted in increased risk to a cohort of construction workers. Both of the two studies on work in temporary agencies (15, 16) reported increased risk when working in temporary agencies compared to all industry (Finland and Washington State, USA). Although work in temporary employment was the most common exposure studied (6 of 17 articles) and is believed by Koranyi et al (6) to be the “central dimension” of precarious employment, only one of the studies looking specifically at this work group found a significant association. The article by Bena et al (17) was perhaps the most relevant and convincing article in the review. This study investigated how working as a subcontractor (versus a contractor) and length of employment contract were associated with risk of work-related injury in a cohort of 9000 construction workers employed on a high-speed train construction site in Italy. The shorter the length of a worker’s employment contract, the higher the risk of injury: the RR was over twice as high for those with a 6-month contract (as compared with a 2-year contract), 1.7 times higher for 1-year contract, and 1.5 times higher for 1.5-year contract. The associations were strong and CI narrow and there also appeared to be a strong dose‒response relationship. Additionally, length of contract is an objective exposure metric and likely related to job insecurity. Other studies evaluated only very broad exposure categories of work in temporary versus permanent employment (with no detail on the type of work), which may be why only weak associations were found (ie, we don’t know whether there may be unbalanced occupational hazards in the temporary versus permanent employment groups). Despite the publicity and reporting of fatalities of workers in temporary work assignments (18, 19) the research evidence to date has been inconclusive on whether this work group is at elevated risk for injury. Much stronger studies in this area are needed which better control for the role of occupational exposures or other job characteristics (such as job tenure, socioeconomic status) known to be related to temporary work and work-related injury to avoid confounding or mediating risk. Alali et al (9) was the only study to simultaneously investigate job insecurity and temporary versus permanent contract work status. The RR for both these risk factors, in their study of Belgium workers, was statistically insignificant: job insecurity had a positive association while temporary contract work appeared protective. This may indicate that job insecurity mediates or confounds the relationship between holding a temporary work contract and work-related injury or possibly is on the causal pathway or these risk factors may be too highly correlated to study together. The majority of the 17 studies focused on only a single aspect of non-standard work; however, a worker frequently experiences many, simultaneous non-standard work exposures. For instance, multiple job holders are more likely than single job holders also to be on-call workers, independent contractors, and those working the evening shift or some other non-regular schedule (13). Therefore, while some of these workers may be at very high risk due to being exposed to multiple exposures known to be related to work-related injury (eg, long work hours, working the night shift, insufficient wages in a primary job) others may be working in a second part-time job to pursue a hobby or special interest and may not be exposed to job insecurity, high work demands or be at elevated risk at all. Currently, these two multiple job holder exposure groups with very different exposure dimensions are being grouped together, which may obscure the true magnitude of risk for the more vulnerable work group. The “at work characteristics” dimension of precarious work, which includes the constructs of work time control and fixed work schedule, did not appear to be comprehensively addressed in this review. There were only two search terms related to this topic, “inconvenient hours” and “part-time work.” Many workers are now exposed to many different kinds of precarious work schedules such as just-in-time scheduling, fluctuating work hours (20) or work in the early morning or overnight. While the relationship between shift work, long work hours and work-related injury have been well studied and shown to increase risk of injury (21‒31), they need to be included as covariates in studies along with other non-standard work characteristics in order to control for confounding or effect modification. While there appears to be enough evidence to conclude that non-standard and precarious work described by Koranyi et al (6) is associated with work-related injury, critical areas still need to be addressed in order for interventions to be developed. Etiologic evidence on specific populations and mechanisms (fixed and transient factors) leading to work-related injuries for these populations (4) is needed. We also need to understand the interaction between risk associated with “job insecurity” or job dissatisfaction and structural components of non-standard working creating vulnerability (such as fragmentation of the working day, flexible work schedules or job tenure). Many of these non-standard work characteristics are correlated and, therefore, the highest-risk groups are likely to be only small subsets of the work groups studied (ie, multiple job holders who are working in temporary assignments and where their second job is at night). These high risk groups may be difficult to study and find statistical associations due to sample size constraints. Low prevalence of high risk exposures as well as relatively rare incidence of some work-related injuries pose challenges as well. One potential approach may be a case‒control design with nested case crossover, which would have the added benefit of studying both fixed and transient risk factors (such as work scheduling) and controlling for confounding or effect modifying factors (eg, age, gender, education, income, tenure, employer size). The benefit of the nested case-crossover design would allow for easily identified cases (through emergency departments or trauma centers) to efficiently be used as their own controls and allow for studying transient exposures, which could include the transitions to new job schedules and job forms. National-level surveillance of the ever-growing precarious workforce will require: (i) defining a set of standard characteristics that should be collected simultaneously which cover all aspects of non-standard work and precariousness, (ii) changing how we collect employment information, (iii) implementing surveillance systems which are able to also collect characteristics of workers with outcomes in this same format; and (iv) designing and carrying out research that can identify enough cases and optimize power to properly study all potential factors simultaneously. Currently, we have only very imprecise and/or local estimates of the prevalence of new forms of work. Annual employment estimates are collected using antiquated systems designed to gather employment data with the primary objective of tracking and understanding unemployment in societies. Typically, workers are asked if they were employed in the last week, and then, if yes, what was the industry and occupation that they worked in for their primary job. In order to gather employment data on the many new forms of work, as well as on multiple jobs and the precarious nature of work, more questions are required. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (32) US Contingent Worker Supplement to the Current Population Survey is a supplemental survey that does address some of the issues. However, this is treated as a supplemental intermittent survey and has only been issued very sporadically; last year (2017) was the first time it was administered since 2005. Questions need to be developed to provide understanding at a detailed level on both non-standard work and the level of precariousness for those with work-related injury. Since workers can be working in multiple non-standard ways, questions need to be asked in a very direct manner (with yes/no options) for both non-standard employment (33) and levels of job insecurity. It is evident from this review that a direct measure of job insecurity was missing in many of the prior studies. This exposure element is difficult to objectively assess, although low wages and length of contract may be close markers. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) (34), which Koranyi et al employed, appears to be a useful and tested tool for assessing job insecurity going forward. This tool has demonstrated high sensitivity to worker vulnerability, employment instability, and levels of precariousness. For about the last 30 years, vast changes in the world of work have occurred at an incredibly rapid pace. As developing nations have been industrializing, modern western nations have been de-industrializing. Globalization, along with de-industrialization, has resulted in rapid growth of the service sector and a decline in manufacturing in advanced economies. Even more recent and impactful has been the dramatic shift away from stable, fixed and permanent employment arrangements to “flexible “and precarious work forms ‒ the most recent of that being work in the “gig” economy, a term borrowed from the music industry which refers to a job with no long‐term connection to a particular business (35). With the participation of as many as 25‒40% workers in European/Scandinavian countries (36‒37) and 15‒20% of US workers and growing (33) in such employment, there is a real need to understand risk factors unique to these new forms of employment. In this new phase of flexible employment, workers are working in hazardous jobs without the appropriate protections in place. As Koranyi et al (6) state, “Regarding health outcomes, it is even questionable if having a precarious job is better than no job at all. To improve work-related health on a structural level it is of great importance that policy changes are guided by scientific evidence...” This review provides support to implement better tools for surveillance and high quality research for these emerging, potentially higher risk and vulnerable work groups. Acknowledgement The author acknowledges Dr. David Lombardi and Ms Margaret Rothwell for their invaluable reviews and critical feedback on this editorial. This editorial reflects the views of the author and not necessarily those of the Workers Compensation Research Institute. References 1. Benach J, Benavides FG, Platt S, Diez-Roux A, Muntaner C. The health-damaging potential of new types of flexible employment: A challenge for public health researchers. American Journal of Public Health 2000; 90(8):1316. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.90.8.1316 2. 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Occup Environ Med. 2005;62:588–97. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2004.016667 25. Folkard S, Lombardi DA. Modeling the impact of the components of long work hours on injuries and “accidents”. Am J Ind Med. 2006;49:953–63. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20307 26. Basner M, Fomberstein KM, Razavi FM, Banks S, William JH, Rosa RR, et al. American Time Use Survey: Sleep time and its relationship to waking activities. Sleep. 2007;30:1085–95. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/30.9.1085 27. Lombardi DA, Folkard S, Willetts JL, Smith GS. Daily sleep, weekly working hours, and risk of work-related injury: US National Health Interview Survey (2004–2008). Chronobiol Int. 2010;27:1013–30. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2010.489466 28. Lombardi DA, Wirtz A, Willetts JL, Folkard S. Independent effects of sleep duration and body mass index on the risk of a work-related injury: Evidence from the US National Health Interview Survey (2004–2010). Chronobiol Int. 2012;29:556–64. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2012.675253 29. Williamson A, Lombardi DA, Folkard S, Stutts J, Courtney TK, Connor JL. The link between fatigue and safety. Accident Anal Prev. 2011;43:498–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.11.011 30. Arlinghaus A, Lombardi DA, Courtney TK, Christiani DC, Folkard S, Perry MJ. The effect of rest breaks on time to injury: A study on work-related ladder-fall injuries in the United States. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2012;38(6):560–67. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3292 31. Basner M, Spaeth AM, Dinges DF. Sociodemographic characteristics and waking activities and their role in the timing and duration of sleep. Sleep. 2014; 37:889–906. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4238 32. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements, February 2005. Economic News Release: US Department of Labor, July 27, 2005. 33. Katz LF, Krueger AB. The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015. March 29, 2016. NBER Working Paper No. 22667. National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2016. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22667 34. Vives A, Amable M, Ferrer M, Moncada S, Llorens C, Muntaner C, et al. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES): psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers. Occup Environ Med. 2010;67(8):548-55. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2009.048967 35. Abraham KG, Haltiwanger J, Sandusky K, Spletzer JR. Measuring the Gig Economy. Presentation given to the Society of Labor Economists, May 6, 2016. US Census Bureau. 36. Broughton A, Green M, Rickard C, Swift S, Eichhorst W, Tobsch V. Precarious Employment in Europe: Patterns, Trends and Policy Strategies. Directorate General for Internal Policies, Policy Department A: Economy and Scientific Policy, European Parliament, PE 587.303. 2016. 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Objectives Precarious employment conditions have become more common in many countries over the last decades, and have been linked to various adverse health outcomes. The objective of this review was to collect and summarize existing scientific research of the relationship between dimensions of precarious employment and the rate of occupational injuries. METHODS: A protocol was developed in accordance with the PRISMA-P checklist for systematic literature reviews. We searched PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus for articles on observational studies from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand published in peer-reviewed journals 1990-2017. A minimum of two independent reviewers assessed each article with respect to quality and eligibility criteria. Articles of high/moderate quality meeting all specified inclusion criteria were included in the review. RESULTS: The literature search resulted in 471 original titles, of which 17 articles met all the inclusion criteria. The most common exposures were in descending order; temporary employment, multiple jobs, working for a subcontractor at the same worksite/temp agency, part-time, self-employment, hourly pay, union membership, insurance benefits, flexible versus fixed work schedule, wages, job insecurity, work-time control and precarious career trajectories. Ten studies reported a positive association between precarious employment and occupational injuries. Four studies reported a negative association, and three studies did not show any significant association. CONCLUSIONS: This review supports an association between some of the dimensions of precarious employment and occupational injuries; most notably for multiple jobholders and employees of temp agencies or subcontractors at the same worksite. However, results for temporary employment are inconclusive. There is a need for more prospective studies of high quality, designed to measure effect sizes as well as causality.

The matter of working time is an essential in labour law, considering dignified work as a labour work principle. It took a long time to achieve the standard of eight hours of work, eight hours of free time and eight hours of sleeping. Since the salary depends on worked hours, it was necessary to regulate working time by law. Even though, there are some misunderstandings in labour practice referring to overtime work. It is crucial to pay special attention to night work, as a work in difficult conditions. Considering health protection measures, it's important to di stinguish part time job and those jobs where working time is cut because of the harmful effects of the work place.

Med IA-avtalen og pensjonsreformen har redusert arbeidstid blitt utropt til et universalmiddel, som ikke bare skal redusere sykefraværet, men også holde flere uføre og eldre i arbeid. Det oppmuntres derfor til økt uttak av gradert sykemelding, gradert uførepensjon og gradert alderspensjon. Over én av tre virksomhetsledere finner det imidlertid vanskelig å tilby eldre arbeidstakere deltid. Særlig betenkelig er det at andelen ledere som sier deltid er uaktuelt eller vanskelig å få til på deres arbeidsplass, er høyest i virksomheter som sysselsetter grupper med tradisjonelt høyt sykefravær og lav forventet avgangsalder. Dette synes spesielt å være tilfelle på mannsdominerte arbeidsplasser.

Günümüzde hemen hemen her alanda kullanılan esneklik, anahtar bir kavrama dönüşmüş durumdadır. Esnekliğin, işverenlerin hızla değişen piyasa taleplerine uyum sağlamasına yardımcı olması ve çalışanlara iş-yaşam dengesi için seçenekler sunması bu kavrama önem kazandırmaktadır. Kadınların işgücü piyasasına artan katılımı ve emek piyasalarındaki dönüşümle tartışılan iş ve aile yaşam dengesi, bu dengeyi sağlayacak politika ve uygulamaları gündeme getirmiştir. Buna bağlı olarak esneklikle ilgili tartışmalar başlamış, ebeveyn izni ve çocuk bakım politikaları kadar esnek çalışma da, iş-yaşam dengesi politikalarının en önemli düzenlemelerinden biri haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışma esnek çalışmanın iş-yaşam dengesine katkısını değerlendirmektedir. Bu makalede sağlıklı bir iş yaşam dengesi açısından esnek çalışmanın önemli fakat yeterli olmadığı, olumsuzları azaltacak çeşitli tedbirlerin alınması gerektiği ileri sürülmektedir.

Det er godt dokumentert at innvandrede kvinner har lavere sysselsetting enn norske kvinner uten innvandringsbakgrunn. Men hva preger deltakelsen i arbeidslivet blant de som har fått en fot innenfor? I denne artikkelen studeres mobilitet i arbeidstid og arbeidstilknytning gjennom å ta i bruk registerdata der kvinner som var sysselsatt i 2009 følges fram til og med 2012. Norske kvinner sammenliknes med kvinner som har innvandret fra Irak, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia og Vietnam. Vi finner at deltidsarbeid er langt mer stabilt hos kvinner uten innvandrerbakgrunn. Kvinner fra Irak, Iran, Somalia og Vietnam har større tilbøyelighet til å øke arbeidstiden enn norske kvinner, noe som kan tyde på høyere grad av ufrivillig deltid. Samtidig er bevegelsen ut av lønnet arbeid langt mer omfattende blant innvandrede enn blant norske kvinner. Dette gjelder også etter kontroll for variasjoner i utdanning, familiesituasjon, type arbeid og arbeidstid. Analysene tyder på at innvandrede kvinner sett under ett har en mer marginalisert posisjon i norsk arbeidsliv enn kvinner uten innvandringsbakgrunn, men viser også at det er store variasjoner på dette området mellom kvinner fra ulike landgrupper. Nøkkelord: deltidsarbeid, innvandrede kvinner, økonomisk integrering, marginalisering, mobilitet

In response to the rising number of individuals who have to combine work and home responsibilities, organizations increasingly offer work-home practices. These are HR-practices such as telework and part-time work that can help employees to combine work and home roles. However, extant research on the relationship between work-home practice use and both work-to-home conflict (i.e., work interfering with private life) and home-to-work conflict (i.e., private life interfering with work) shows inconsistent results. In this study, we posit that employees’ work-home conflict does not so much depend on whether or not they use a specific work-home practice, but rather on (1) the degree to which their (non-)use of this practice is in line with their preference (i.e., volition) and (2) the pressure they experience from the work and/or the home environment to act in another way than they prefer (i.e., perceived work pressure and perceived home pressure). Hypotheses are tested for two specific work-home practices (i.e., home-based telework and part-time work) in both a field study and an experimental between-subject vignette study. Results show that work-home conflict is affected by volition, perceived work pressure and perceived home pressure; yet, some differences were found between the two types of work-home conflict (i.e., work-to-home and home-to-work conflict) and between the two types of work-home practices. Our results nuance the dichotomy between users and non-users of work-home practices that has been dominantly used in the work-home practice literature to date and point to similar predictors of work-home conflict among both the group of users and the group of non-users. These findings may encourage researchers to examine characteristics of employees’ work-home practice use (e.g., volition, perceived pressure) in addition to the mere use of these practices when studying their effectiveness.

It is generally believed that long periods of childcare at home deteriorate mothers’ occupational careers. This study examined mothers’ experiences regarding negative career consequences of full-time care of children at home, and of part-time work due to childcare. The focus was on Finland, a country that provides all mothers a financially compensated, longer-term childcare leave linked with unrestricted access to day care services. Experiences of Finnish mothers were compared with experiences of mothers in 11 other European countries. The data were based on European Social Survey (ESS) round 2, conducted in 2004 and 2005. In all of the studied countries, the majority of mothers assessed that taking care of children at home had not harmed their occupational careers. There was, however, a clear cross-country variation. Perceived career consequences for both types of care at home were least common in Finland. In most of the investigated countries, longer times spent with children at home increased the probability to perceive negative career consequences. In Finland, the difference was relatively small. Thus, as long as the focus is on mothers’ perceptions, the longer-term childcare leave does not seem to markedly deteriorate Finnish mothers’ careers.

Diverse family leave and day care policies create varying monetary incentives for mothers to stay at home with their children. They also affect attitudes of mothers and this should influence childcare decisions. In this study, attitudes of mothers towards cutting down on paid work for the sake of family as well as their behaviour regarding childcare at home were studied in 12 European countries. Of special interest were Denmark, Finland and Sweden, three Nordic countries with a long tradition of childcare policies supporting mothers’ work participation. The data is based on the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 2, conducted in 2004 and 2005. The least familialistic attitudes were found in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. A coarse indicator for the effectiveness of childcare policy was devised and indicated that attitudes correlated with the policies in several countries. No correspondence was found between attitudes and average times spent with children at home. Regarding the Nordic countries (particularly Sweden and Finland), the contradictions observed were consistent with childcare policies that affect short- and long-term behaviour in opposite directions. In Finland, a familialistic attitude was relatively common among mothers whose youngest child was under 1-year-old.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the differences between full- and part-time employment (FTE and PTE) in terms of working conditions, on the one hand, and job satisfaction, health status, and work-related psychosocial problems according to gender and welfare state regime, on the other hand, and to analyze the role of working conditions in the association between PTE and FTE. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was based on a sample of 7921 men and 8220 women from the European Working Conditions Survey aged 16–64 years, who were employed part-time (5–19 or 20–30 hours per week) or full-time (31–40 hours/week). Multiple logistic regression models were fitted separately for each gender and welfare state regime. RESULTS: PTE is associated with poorer working conditions than FTE for all national welfare types. Among women, only those in southern European countries experienced low job satisfaction [odds ratio after adjustment (OR_adj) for sociodemographic variables, OR_adj 1.73, and 1.66, for those working 20–30 and 5–19 hours/week, respectively; reference group: FTE workers], but this association disappeared after further adjustment for working conditions. Low job satisfaction and poorer health status was more common among PTE men from continental (low job satisfaction, OR_adj 1.80 and 3.61, for 20–30 and 5–19 working hours/week, respectively), and southern European (OR_adj, 2.98, for 5–19 working hours/week) countries. PTE tended to be associated with fewer psychosocial problems among women, but with more psychosocial problems among men in continental Europe and those those engaged in “mini-jobs” in southern European welfare regimes. CONCLUSIONS: The association between FTE and PTE and job satisfaction, health status, and psychosocial problems is partly driven by working conditions and differs between gender and welfare regime. This highlights the importance of promoting effective measures to ensure equal treatment between FTE and PTE workers and the role of the social norms that form part of these different welfare states regimes.

We would like to thank the authors of the letter entitled "Multiple job holding is not a type of precarious employment" (1) and extend our thanks to the Editor-in-Chief for giving us the opportunity to respond. The authors of the letter point out that precarious employment is a multidimensional construct, with which we completely agree. There is however no consensus on which dimensions should be included in this construct, and therefore we chose a broad approach including three of the most wide-spread definitions: Guy Standing’s (2), the Employment Precarious Scale (3) and the ILO`s (4). A one-on-one comparison of these can be found in table 1 of our review (5). We found very few studies using a multidimensional definition of precarious employment and so our review ended up investigating studies on single dimensions, such as holding multiple jobs. The main argument of Bouwhuis et al is that multiple job holding should not be included as a dimension of precarious employment as it “does not relate to the quality of the terms of employment” and “not all multiple job holders are vulnerable or precarious”. This argument could be made about any single dimension and is the rational behind creating a multidimensional construct, ie, no single variable is enough to capture the complexity of the issue. In the case of employment instability, some temporary workers are precarious and some are not (6). Some part-time workers are precarious although many are not. And as the authors of the letter has shown in their own study; some multiple job holders are precarious while some are not (7). Thus, we can all agree that holding multiple jobs is not the same as being precariously employed. However, we believe that multiple job holding should continue to be considered as an important dimension of precarious employment. There are several ongoing initiatives to try to reach consensus on what comprises precarious employment. We are glad that the debate on precarious employment is alive and well in this journal and elsewhere. Any reader interested in contributing to this effort are welcome to contact us. References 1. Bouwhuis S, Geuskens GA, van der Beek AJ, Boot CRL. Multiple-job holding is not a type of precarious employment. Scand J Work Environ Health – online first. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3782 2. Standing G. The precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Publishing; 2011. 3. Vives A, Amable M, Ferrer M, , Moncada S, Llorens C, Muntaner C, et al. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES): psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers. Occup Environ Med. 2010;67(8):548–55. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2009.048967. 4. ILO. Non-standard forms of employment. Geneva: International Labour Office; 2015. 5. Koranyi I, Jonsson J, Ronnblad T, Stockfelt L, Bodin T.. Precarious employment and occupational accidents and injuries - a systematic review. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2018;44(4):341–50. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3720. 6. Julià M, Vives A, Tarafa G, Benach J. S09-4 The precarization of the spanish labour market and its impact on mental health. Occup Environ Med. 2016;73:A109-A110 https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103951.296. 7. Bouwhuis S, Hoekstra T, Bongers PM, Boot CRL, Geuskens GA, van der Beek AJ. Distinguishing groups and exploring health differences among multiple job holders aged 45 years and older. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2018:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1351-2.

As a result of the birth of the neo-liberal politics at the beginning of 1980s, in our country , part time work, which is one type of flexible working arrangements, has taken its place on the legal grounds by reason of Government Officials Law numbered 657, Labour Law numbered 4857, The Social Security and General Health Policy numbered 5510 and Pocket Law numbered 6111. Part- time work has become widespread in both public and private sector. In this article, non-official trainers who are employed by the National Ministry of Education and their social security rights will be discussed and examined.

The aim of this paper is to understand the transformations of current temporalities through the end of career. We will show how the development of specific legal devices of reduction of working time in Belgium transforms the experiences of aging workers in and out of work, through a reorganization of social time and life course. For this we will use the example of the end of careers.This article is based on the analysis of 491 surveys collected in two contrasting areas of activity and 42 semi-structured interviews with recipients of time credit. These data allow us to rethink today's frames focusing on two elements: the management of the end of careers and the articulation of social times of a specific cohort.

Part-time work constitutes a typical method of use of a female youth working in chain shops. In this sector, flexibility with the service of the market (flow of customers) imposes a flexible temporal availability: part time and variability. This article is interested in the relations between this required temporal availability and the availability of young women for this type of employment. It questions the biographical and professionals factors who lead them to accept, support, or to be opposed to this standard of availability.

Many Eastern European countries are characterized by high wage inequalities and a relatively low proportion of labour force being employed on a part-time basis, yet there seem not be so far made any studies on the part time pay penalty. In this article we analyse whether there are any differences in the average wages of part-time and full-time employed in Estonia, a small Eastern European catching up economy. We use Estonian Labour Force Survey data from years 1997-2007; the part time wage gap is estimated by using Oaxaca-Blinder wage decompositions and propensity score matching. The results are quite different for males and females. For females the raw wage gap is in favour of part-timers. After taking into account various worker characteristics, the wage gap becomes even larger. For males the full-time raw premium exists, but it is to a large extent explained by the different labour market characteristics.

Modern retail chains generate large quantities of entry-level jobs, many of which are low-wage, in Mexico as in the United States. The sector’s employment patterns and practices make up an important strand among processes that generate and reproduce economy-wide inequality. Retail trade jobs also are emblematic of service work as a whole. With a cross-national comparative study, the paper explores the role of work-related and non-work related societal institutions and norms in affecting retail job quality. The paper compares the processes that shape modern retail jobs in the two countries relying upon sectorial field work conducted over the past nine years. Three dimensions of job quality are points of comparison: hours of work; compensation structure; and job mobility. The paper finds that national institutions have discernible imprints on the characteristics of retail jobs. The simplest instances are cases where institutions act directly on employment as occurs with hours of work outcomes. But indirect institutional effects are also important, particularly involving reproductive institutions such as child care systems and norms regarding mothers’ role in child rearing. Still, ample room for managerial discretion and experimentation is found in both countries’ retail sectors.

When measuring changes in « gendered working time », part-time work (TTP) is a key indicator. Present-day conditions of offer and customs referred to part-time labour in France reveal a breakaway from the temporal Fordist regime. With its excessive references to the post-war boom years, and too great a focus on offer, research on part-time work does not take this breakaway into account. Such research has, of course, alerted us to the potential dangers of reduced-time working under the Fordist system based on so-called « standard » working, but does not enable us to see how this method of working can also become, more constructively, part of a different system. The article examines this blind spot of scientific investigation. In addition to reduced working time, the factor characterizing customs with respect to part-time work today is the practice of multiple activities, leading to the same level of social usefulness as a full-time job. The interesting fact to observe is that a significant number of these multiple activities are organized within an institutional framework (via public policy schemes) and, as such, are socially supported and recognized. « Supported part-time working » has accompanied the increase in part-time work for nearly twenty years. Both movements (new social customs in terms of part-time work and the institutionalization of part-time work) lead us to consider the possibility of an alternative temporal system in which a genuine break with the gender-based order might be underway.

This paper focuses on standards of availability induced by the commercial temporality and employees’ resistances to a maximum flexibility. It is based on a fieldwork study in chain store shops located in France and Belgium. We study the principles of commercial organization through managerial practices of adaptation to commercial flow and the subordination of workers to employment times. In order to become more profitable, chain stores try to adjust the presence of their personnel to the variations of customers’ flows. Managers are in charge of this maximization of the profitability, therefore they expect their personnel to be flexible. It puts strong pressure on them, but it also gives birth to resistances against this constraint. Such resistance takes place in reaction to arbitrary changes of working days or hours; it can also lead them to refuse to work extra hours or to switch temporarily to full-time work.