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In early 2002, the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs published the results of its 2001 Survey of Quality of Life at Work (ECVT). The most outstanding findings are that the majority of employed persons tend to consider themselves satisfied with their work, though a similar proportion perceive major shortcomings with regard to issues such as integration, autonomy and participation. The results show considerable variations according to occupational category, sector, sex and age.
Each year since 1999, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has conducted a Survey of Quality of Life at Work (Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo, ECVT). The findings of the 2001 survey were published in early 2002.
The objective of the ECVT, based on a questionnaire survey of people in employment, is to assess the conditions in which work is carried out in Spain and the workers' perceptions of these conditions and of industrial relations. For the survey, several indicators have been drawn up to assess 'quality of life at work' on a scale ranging from zero to 10 (zero indicates extremely poor working conditions and 10 excellent working conditions).
The main findings
The findings of the 2001 ECVT suggest a relatively satisfactory situation with regard to three of the six main indicators. Fairly good scores of around six out of 10 were recorded for the working conditions and pride in the work indicators. Furthermore, the 'negative' indicator of alienation at work shows a low score (2.1 out of 10), which must be interpreted as positive. However, fairly low scores of around three out of 10 were recorded for the three other main indicators - participation at work, integration at work and autonomy at work- indicating the existence of undesirable situations with regard to these aspects.
However, according to the ECVT 2001 the workers surveyed expressed an overall level of satisfaction at work of 6.8 points out of 10. The reasons given for this satisfaction included aspects such as 'enjoying the work' (24.5% of relevant respondents), good relations with fellow workers (11.8%), good pay (7.7%), good working hours (7.5%) and personal development (7.4%). The reasons for dissatisfaction at work included poor wages (20.7% of relevant respondents), bad working hours (15%) and the onerousness of the work (9%). It is striking to note that job stability was stated as a source of satisfaction in only 3.4% of cases, and as a cause of dissatisfaction in only 5.4%.
The work content was generally perceived by the interviewees as attractive and interesting, with an average score of seven out of 10. Most respondents (60%) stated that they never get bored at work, though another 30% considered their work as tedious at times and 10% claimed that they are always bored. With regard to safety and hygiene in the workplace, 77.3% of respondents were generally satisfied (and only 8.3% were explicitly dissatisfied), which is paradoxical in one of the countries with the highest accident rates in the EU (ES0202213F).
Current work organisation seemed to be well accepted among the respondents, with 70.4% satisfied with the organisational structure and with the division of the work in their company. However, only 35% stated that they were aware of the administrative chart, objectives and organisation of their company. This contradiction suggests that these figures should be treated with caution and their apparent significance should be viewed carefully. Furthermore, most of the respondents (60%) agreed with their level of participation in the decisions that affect their work (against 24% who were clearly in disagreement). On the other hand, only 30% considered their level of autonomy at work to be acceptable, whereas 31% found it only fairly acceptable and 25% found it totally unacceptable. In other words, it seems that while the degree of participation in general is accepted by workers, there is a demand for greater autonomy at work.
With regard to continuing training and career itinerary, the 2001 ECVT found that the great majority of workers interviewed (77.2%) considered the relation between their education and the job they do to be satisfactory (though a significant 17.7% considered that their education is higher than is required by their job). Furthermore, over half the respondents (54%) stated that their vocational training has little or no relation to their possibilities of promotion in the company (only 20.8% considered that it does). These figures raise questions about the suitability of training programmes and the job profiles required by companies.
The 2001 survey also includes information on labour and geographical mobility. For example, 71.1% of respondents had changed job at some time in their life, and they stated that the main reasons for changing were promotion (20.7%) and better pay (18.9%). The remaining 28.9% of respondents were still in their first job, which they had accepted because 'it was the type of work they were looking for' (53.2%) or because it was the first job they were offered (22.3%). It is perhaps curious that these questions are approached as if people were continually changing job of their own free will, especially considering the high rate of temporary employment in the Spanish labour market. With regard to geographical mobility, 23.3% of the respondents currently lived outside the region in which they were born, and 76.7% were still in their region of birth.
Finally, the 2001 ECVT includes some questions on reconciling work and family life. Of the respondents, 60.3% lived in a couple with children, 12.3% in a couple without children, and 10% were single-parent families (mostly women). Another significant figure is that the main reason for which occupied women stated that they would leave their jobs is the termination of their current contract (41.7%). Professional concerns take precedence over the family, because 27.3% of the employed persons would leave their job to obtain promotion, whereas 1.6% would do so to meet family obligations, 1.4% for childbirth and 0.4% to get married.
The Ministry's interpretation
The interpretation of the 2001 ECVT given by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in its comments on the results of the survey is clearly positive. The main conclusion is that 'employed persons in the Spanish labour market have in general a very high level of satisfaction with their work, confirming a tendency that started in 1999.' The ECVT's general index of quality of life at work indicates that over six out of 10 employed persons have an average to high quality of work. Furthermore, states the Ministry, there is a high degree of pride in the work done, a high level of satisfaction with the working conditions, average levels of integration, autonomy and participation at work, and a low level of alienation.
Commentary
The 2001 ECVT seems to show that, in general, the employed population in Spain are satisfied with their work, and the comments of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs tend to emphasise the positive over the negative results. It would be hard to believe that the majority of the working population are explicitly dissatisfied with their work. However, there are certain aspects, such as the degree of integration, autonomy and participation at work, that are given a low score by the workers, though the official comments place them as 'average'.
The survey figures thus indicate an unequal distribution of power between workers and management, so one could put forward the hypothesis that in Spanish companies there are certain shortcomings that hinder the 'pluralistic' expression of opinions and interests, and that there is a predominance of disciplinary control of the workforce, particularly among certain occupational groups. For example, it is significant that, whereas 60% of the respondents agree with their degree of participation in the decisions that affect their work, among unskilled workers this percentage is 40%, and among private and public sector managers it is 91%.
There is also a clearly unequal distribution of satisfaction with work content among occupational categories and sectors of activity. For example, graduates and entrepreneurs and professionals with employees are those who consider their jobs less monotonous, whereas the less qualified workers see their work as more monotonous. With regard to variables such as sex and age, men do more tedious jobs than women, and the perceived levels of boredom at work decrease with increasing age. In other words, the young are those who do the most tedious and monotonous jobs. Indeed, despite the satisfaction of the majority, this survey shows that certain types of group (particularly the young, women, unskilled workers, workers in the service sector etc) have a considerably less satisfactory quality of life at work than the rest of the employed population.
One should also perhaps question the methodological validity of a questionnaire survey to obtain data on the perceptions of persons in very different social contexts, and perhaps a more qualitative approach should be taken to avoid the fallacy caused by aggregating incommensurate responses. In order to gather this type of evaluative information through a questionnaire, one must have very good information on the meanings that the population gives to the items on which they are questioned. This is not easy to achieve for a national sample. However, for the moment they are the only figures available. (Josep Espluga. Department of Sociology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona)