Download files
Abstract
Employer demands for flexible work practices have seen an increase in the diversity of employment relationships illustrated by a global growth of people working in contingent or precarious positions. Increasing evidence suggests that precarious employment is associated with poorer occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes in terms of injury rates, disease risk and psychological wellbeing.
This study used a cross sectional survey of 255 employees to compare the OHS experiences of temporary (N = 156, 61.2%) and permanent (N = 99, 38.8%) workers employed in three companies involved in the seasonal processing of primary agriculture products (dairy, meat and produce) in two regions of New Zealand.
This research identified a clearly definable group of temporary workers (seasonals), who exhibit different characteristics to those commonly associated with precarious employment as they have an expectation of reasonable lengths of fairly secure employment (seasons exceed eight months). Many respondents only undertook one period of employment per year and were re-engaged in subsequent seasons.
There are limited opportunities for alternative employment adjacent to these plants. This creates a dependant employment market, potentially putting labour in a weak bargaining position. This is countered by a high overall level of union membership (N = 181, 71%) and the operation of collective employment contracts. This may be atypical in seasonal industries.
Injury numbers were similar (permanent N = 49, 49.5%, temporary N = 73, 46.8%) and serious injuries (permanent N = 23, 23.2%, temporary N = 31, 19.9%). Once a factor was introduced to compensate for exposure time, thereby creating a frequency rate, results showed a statistically significant difference with temporary workers suffering injuries and serious injuries with less exposure than their permanent counterparts (t (193.821) = -5.566, p < 0.05 and (t (236.928) = -2.160, p < 0.05 respectively). There was a significant difference in chronic injuries with permanent employees being more likely to have a chronic injury (F91,253) = 20.456, p<0.05).
Most importantly, using the General Linear Model (logistic regression), when all other influences were controlled for, this research found employment status remained influential in determining whether a respondent was injured at work or not.