Is Fixed-Term Employment a New Risk for Adverse Physical Working Conditions?

Abstract

Relationships between employment type and the physical work environment were studied among blue-collar workers (n = 1,127). Based on survey data, we set out to compare the evaluations of environmental load and physical strain at work given by fixed-term (17% of all) and permanent workers.

The type of employment was not related to environmental load. However, working on a fixed-term basis increased the risk of physical strain at work. Analyses revealed that this connection was evident only among fixed-term construction workers.

The results did not support the much-cited view that the disintegration ofstandard employment has given rise to a new series of work environment problems. Such problems are concentrated in an area with a long tradition of work environment problems, that is, in the construction industry.

• fixed-term employment
• work environment
• working conditions
• construction work