A new report on the quality of work and employment in Belgium is based on data collected for the European Working Conditions Survey 2010. The report is wide-ranging and establishes seven job quality types in the Belgian labour market, identifying health risks associated with them. A significant finding is that opportunities for good quality work are not evenly distributed across the workforce and depend on a range of factors such as gender, age, occupation, sector and company size.
Background
In 2010, the Belgian Government provided funds to increase the target sample size of the population taking part in the European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS) from 1,000 to 4,000 respondents. A consortium of Belgian researchers was employed to compile a report based on the information collected. The increased number of respondents resulted in a more complete coverage of sectors and occupations and more reliable findings. The findings have been published in a report, Quality of work and employment in Belgium (in French, 1.26Mb PDF).
Key findings
The research shows that the opportunity to enjoy good quality work is not evenly distributed across the working population and depends on a range of factors, including gender, age, occupation, sector and company size.
It also suggests that different kinds of work quality are associated with different health outcomes. A key determinant of work related health risks was, of course, whether or not a workplace was safe. Problems of violence and harassment were factors producing very negative health outcomes.
These results support the current Belgian legal framework’s strong focus on risk prevention, paying particular attention to violence and harassment at work. Furthermore, a good social climate and the control of emotional and time pressures seem to be vital in a policy intended to promote a good quality of work.
Seven job quality types
The Belgian EWCS results offer a wealth of information on job quality, and attempting to report all of it would risk bringing less clarity to the subject.
So as a first step, a framework of indicators was developed. The Belgian responses were then divided into seven groups, each representing a particular job quality type. Table 1 presents the main characteristics of the seven job types identified in the Belgian labour market.
Table 1: Quality of work types on the Belgian labour market
| Job type and its characteristics | Share of total employment |
| Overloaded jobs (legislators, senior officials and managers) positive: autonomous team work, no repetitive tasks, task autonomy, complex tasks, working time autonomy, limited risks, career opportunities, permanent contract, high wages, full time work, training, a say in decision-making, supportive management, social support, little violence and harassment, voice negative: no fixed workplace, unusual working hours, working time flexibility | 18% |
| Full-time balanced work (professionals, clerks) positive: no emotional pressure, no speed pressure, task autonomy, task complexity, no risks, no dealing with people, fixed workplace, career opportunities, permanent contract, good salary, full time work, training, normal working hours, regular work schedule, supportive management, social support negative: no team work | 13% |
| Work with limited career prospects (professionals, clerks and elementary occupations) positive: no repetitive tasks, no speed pressure, task autonomy, no risks, normal working hours, regular work schedule, no harassment negative: little team work, no fixed workplace, limited career opportunities, temporary contract, low wages, part time work, no training | 21% |
| Work with flexible and unusual hours (professionals, plant and machine operators and assemblers) positive: good salary, full time work negative: no team work, no task autonomy, no task complexity, no working time autonomy, no fixed workplace, unusual working hours, working time flexibility, no say, no supportive management, no voice. | 11% |
| Emotionally demanding work (professionals) positive: autonomous team work, complex tasks, training, voice negative: emotional pressure, repetitive tasks, speed pressure, no working time autonomy, risk, working with people, limited career opportunities, part time work, unusual working hours, working time flexibility, no say, no supportive management, no social support, violence and harassment | 13% |
| Heavy, repetitive work (craft and related trades workers) positive: autonomous team work, no emotional pressure, not much work with people, fixed workplace, good salary, full time work, training opportunities, normal working hours, regular work schedule negative: repetitive tasks, no task autonomy, no working time autonomy, risky work environment, no say, no social support | 9% |
| Non-decent work (clerks, service workers, shop and market sales workers and elementary occupations) positive: no emotional pressure, not much work with people, fixed workplace, regular work schedule negative: not much team work, repetitive tasks, no task autonomy, no complex tasks, no working time autonomy, risky work environment, no career opportunities, temporary contract, very low wages, part time work, no training, no say, no voice | 14% |
Source: HIVA KU Leuven – based on EWCS
Health outcomes
The workers with ‘emotionally demanding work’ had by far the highest work-related health risks and also registered the worst scores on the different health indicators. Not surprisingly, they had a very low score on work sustainability. Within the group of workers with emotionally demanding jobs, only 32% of the respondents believed they would be able to continue in the same job until the age of 60.
Workers with ‘full-time balanced work’ seemed to have the best health outcomes.
This suggests that ‘overloaded jobs’, with challenging work and extremely good working conditions, were not the best for workers’ health. The ‘next best’ work with more moderate expectations for the worker seemed to be a better choice when it came to optimising a worker’s health outcomes.
The main symptoms of ill-health reported by workers were muscular pains, including backache.
Risks such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders (for instance, vibrations, painful positions) are the strongest predictor of physical health, but there are also psychosocial risks associated with physical health, in particular lack of social support and emotional pressure.
Other symptoms reported by workers were fatigue, sleeping problems and headaches. Again, emotional pressure and lack of social support were strongly linked to these symptoms, as well as time pressures, perceived harassment at work and whether or not management was supportive.
Vulnerable groups were older workers, less well-educated and non-native workers.
The researchers felt some effort should be made to tackle the psychosocial and health risks of SME owners and of employees facing work changes.
Job sustainability
Health factors appear to be the variables most obviously linked with the perception of job sustainability. Good scores in general, and good physical and psychological health were linked to better scores in job sustainability, while work-related health risks correlated with lower scores in job sustainability. Job satisfaction was another important outcome, positively correlated with job sustainability.
The study highlighted differences in the sustainability of the work between male and female workers. Women considered their work less sustainable than men.
These gender differences in job sustainability were more acute among older workers. For instance, the preference for working fewer hours a week was more widespread among workers aged 50 and over, and more female workers wanted to reduce their working hours.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, male workers were more likely to work in ‘overloaded jobs’ than female workers. Women had a higher representation in the work quality clusters of ‘emotionally demanding work’ and ‘non-decent work’.
The impact of restructuring
The study also focused on the impact of restructuring processes on the quality of work and employment.
Inevitably, restructuring requires changes to the organisation of a workplace. New or remaining tasks need to be redistributed between employees, and jobs have to be redesigned, but this can be a positive process.
The findings confirm that the way work reorganisation is implemented can either reinforce or alleviate the negative impact of restructuring on psychological health. If jobs are designed in such a way that employees are given enough control to tackle increased job demands, this partly compensates for the negative effects of restructuring.
Employees going through restructuring were more likely to report an impact on their health. The impact was mainly considered to be negative and went beyond mental health problems. Restructuring is associated with a poor overall assessment by employees of their working conditions. An important reason for these negative feelings was found in the impact restructuring traditionally has on work organisation, with both an increase in job demands and a decrease in job control.
Precarious work and the Belgian labour market
The EWCS data were also used to construct separate indicators to serve the analysis on the prevalence of precarious work on the Belgian labour market, as shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Indicators of precarious work
| Dimension of precarious work | Prevalence (%) |
| Overall precariousness | 26.4% |
| | |
| Limited say | 28.4% |
| Limited voice | 54.9% |
| No information on occupational health and safety issues | 4.6% |
| Flexible working times | 29.5% |
| Intensive working times | 15.3% |
| Limited employability opportunities | 32.4% |
| Low earnings | 33.4% |
| Temporary contract | 13.9% |
Source: HIVA KU Leuven – based on EWCS
Like job quality in general, precariousness is not equally distributed across the labour market. In general, those with higher scores on the overall precariousness indicator included women, younger workers, less educated or less well-qualified workers, as well as workers from micro and small organisations and those from agricultural, service and elementary occupations.
Employment arrangements have changed considerably, and non-standard employment is increasing. It is also possible that the effect of the global economic crisis on the European economy has made the situation worse, making it more difficult for increasing numbers of workers to negotiate better employment conditions.
Reference
Vandenbrande, T., Vandekerckhove, S., Vendramin, P., Valenduc, G., Huys, R. and Van Hootegem, G. et al (2012), Quality of work and employment in Belgium, University of Leuven, Belgium, available at https://hiva.kuleuven.be/resources/pdf/publicaties/R1456b_fr.pdf
Caroline Vermandere, HIVA-KU Leuven