Developing a Basic Scale for Workers' Psychological Burden from the Perspective of Occupational Safety and Health

BACKGROUND: Organizations are pursing complex and diverse aims to generate higher profits. Many workers experience high work intensity such as workload and work pressure in this organizational environment. Especially, psychological burden is a commonly used term in workplace of Republic of Korea. This study focused on defining the psychological burden from the perspective of occupational safety and health and tried to develop a scale for psychological burden. METHODS: The 48 preliminary questionnaire items for psychological burden were prepared by a focus group interview with 16 workers through the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire II and Mindful Awareness Attention Scale. The preliminary items were surveyed with 572 workers, and exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and correlation analysis were conducted for a new scale. RESULTS: As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, five factors were extracted: organizational activity, human error, safety and health workload, work attitude, and negative self-management. These factors had significant correlations and reliability, and the stability of the model for validity was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. CONCLUSION: The developed scale for psychological burden can measure workers' psychological burden in relation to safety and health. Despite some limitations, this study has applicability in the workplace, given the relatively small-sized questionnaire.

Safety Climate and Occupational Stress According to Occupational Accidents Experience and Employment Type in Shipbuilding Industry of Korea

BACKGROUND: Safety climate and occupational stress are related with occupational accident. The present study tried to identify the differences in safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type (e.g., direct workers and subcontract workers). METHODS: In this study, we conducted a survey using safety climate scale and Korean Occupational Stress Scale and classified the participants into four groups: direct workers working for accident-free departments, direct workers working for accident departments, subcontract workers working for accident-free departments, and subcontract workers working for accident departments for 2 years within the same workplace in the shipbuilding industry. RESULTS: The direct workers and subcontract workers showed diverse results in subscales of safety climate and occupational stress. This result is supported by existing studies; however, further study is necessary for more supporting evidence and elaborative methodological approach. CONCLUSION: The necessity of management for safety climate and psychosocial factor such as occupational stress for both direct workers and subcontract workers as a whole is suggested by this study.

Unions, Health and Safety Committees, and Workplace Accidents in the Korean Manufacturing Sector

BACKGROUND: Despite the declining trend of workplace accidents in Republic of Korea, its level is still quite high compared with that in other developed countries. Factors that are responsible for high workplace accidents have not been well documented in Republic of Korea. The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the effects of unions and health and safety committees on workplace accidents in Korean manufacturing firms. We also allow for the interactions between unions and health and safety committees in the analysis. The results obtained in this paper will not only contribute to the literature in this field, but might also be useful for employers and worker representatives who are trying to find an effective way to reduce workplace accidents. METHODS: This paper utilizes the 2012 Occupational Safety and Health Trend Survey data, which is a unique data set providing information on workplace injuries and illness as well as other characteristics of participatory firms, representative of the manufacturing industry in Republic of Korea. RESULTS: In estimating the effects of unions and health and safety committees, we build a negative binomial regression model in which the interactions between unions and health and safety committees are permissible in reducing workplace accidents. CONCLUSION: Health and safety committees were found to reduce the incidence of accidents whereas unionized establishments have higher incidence of accidents than nonunionized establishments. We also found that health and safety committees can more effectively reduce accidents in nonunionized establishments. By contrast, nonexclusive joint committees can more effectively reduce accidents in unionized establishments.

Corrigendum to "Unions, Health and Safety Committees, and Workplace Accidents in the Korean Manufacturing Sector" Saf Health Work 7 (2) (2016) 161-165

The corresponding author's affiliation is now corrected.

First and Second Korean Working Conditions Survey: A Comparison between South Korea and EU Countries / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: In this study, I am going to figure out Korean workers' actual exposure to risk factors and percentage of the workers who complain of health problems by performing a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the workers and working conditions in Korea and EU. METHODS: The data used in this study includes the 1st working conditions survey conducted in 2006 in Korea, the 2nd working conditions survey in 2010, the 4th EU working conditions survey, and the 5th EU working conditions survey. I have compared the changes to Korean working conditions and those to EU working conditions in the categories of demographic characteristics, quality of labor, exposure to risk factors, and health problems included in the data. RESULTS: The analysis of the characteristics of the demographic characters of Korean workers shows that aged and female workers register increased labor force participation. The analysis of labor quality shows that Korea has a long working time but with a lower work intensity compared to the countries included in EU working conditions survey. As for risk factors, Korea registers a low level of exposure as compared to countries included in EU working conditions survey and characteristically shows a decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke. The survey shows sharply increasing complaints of muscle pain in the upper and lower limbs. CONCLUSION: In this study, I have identified vulnerable social groups by using quantified values in a comparison of the working conditions of Korea and those of EU.

First and Second Korean Working Conditions Survey: A Comparison between South Korea and EU Countries / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: In this study, I am going to figure out Korean workers' actual exposure to risk factors and percentage of the workers who complain of health problems by performing a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the workers and working conditions in Korea and EU. METHODS: The data used in this study includes the 1st working conditions survey conducted in 2006 in Korea, the 2nd working conditions survey in 2010, the 4th EU working conditions survey, and the 5th EU working conditions survey. I have compared the changes to Korean working conditions and those to EU working conditions in the categories of demographic characteristics, quality of labor, exposure to risk factors, and health problems included in the data. RESULTS: The analysis of the characteristics of the demographic characters of Korean workers shows that aged and female workers register increased labor force participation. The analysis of labor quality shows that Korea has a long working time but with a lower work intensity compared to the countries included in EU working conditions survey. As for risk factors, Korea registers a low level of exposure as compared to countries included in EU working conditions survey and characteristically shows a decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke. The survey shows sharply increasing complaints of muscle pain in the upper and lower limbs. CONCLUSION: In this study, I have identified vulnerable social groups by using quantified values in a comparison of the working conditions of Korea and those of EU.

An Empirical Analysis on Labor Unions and Occupational Safety and Health Committees' Activity, and Their Relation to the Changes in Occupational Injury and Illness Rate

OBJECTIVES: To find out from an analysis of empirical data the levels of influence, which a labor union (LU) and Occupational Safety and Health Committee (OSHC) have in reducing the occupational injury and illness rate (OIIR) through their accident prevention activities in manufacturing industries with five or more employees. METHODS: The empirical data used in this study are the Occupational Safety and Health Tendency survey data, Occupational Accident Compensation data and labor productivity and sales data for the years 2003 to 2007. By matching these three sources of data, a final data set (n = 280) was developed and analyzed using SPSS version 18 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). RESULTS: It was found that a workplace with a LU has a lower OIIR than one without a LU. In manufacturing industries with five or more employees in 2007, the OIIR of the workplaces without a LU was 0.87%, while that of workplaces with a LU was much lower at 0.45%. In addition, workplaces with an established OSHC had a lower OIIR than those without an OSHC. CONCLUSION: It was found that the OIIR of workplaces with a LU is lower than those without a LU. Moreover, those with the OSHC usually had a lower OIIR than those without. The workplace OIIR may have an impact on management performance because the rate is negatively correlated with labor productivity and sales. In the long run, the OIIR of workplaces will be reduced when workers and employers join forces and recognize that the safety and health activities of the workplace are necessary, not only for securing the health rights of the workers, but also for raising labor productivity.