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DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1694428
Do temporary workers more often decide to work while sick? Evidence for the link between employment contract and presenteeism in Europe
Publication History
Publication Date:
23 August 2019 (online)
Einleitung:
European employees are increasingly likely to work in cases of illness (sickness presenteeism, SP). Past studies found no support for the hypothesis that temporary workers may avoid taking sick leave due to job insecurity. A new measure to identify decision-based determinants of SP is presenteeism propensity (PP), which is the number of days worked while ill in relation to the sum of days worked while ill and days taken sickness absence. This study investigates the link between employment contract and presenteeism using this more appropriate approach.
Methode:
We used cross-sectional data from 20,240 employees participating in the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. Workers were grouped by their type and duration of employment contract. The link between contract and PP was estimated using a multilevel Poisson model adjusted for socio-demographical, occupational and health-related covariates.
Ergebnisse:
We found a PP of 0.39 (± 0.41), indicating employees working 39% of the days they were ill. In contrast to previous studies, we found temporary workers significantly more likely to decide for presenteeism than permanent workers. The link was stronger when the contract was limited to less than 1 year. Controlling for covariates and perceived job insecurity did just marginally attenuate this relationship.
Diskussion:
The employment contract is an important determinant of presenteeism. Since this relationship was just partly mediated by job insecurity, we suppose that temporary workers avoid taking sick leave because they are less likely to receive sick pay. Furthermore, we recommend PP as a superior measure to identify decision-based determinants of SP.
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