Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

  • Volume 35
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  • Pages.20.1-20.7
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  • 2023
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  • 1225-3618(pISSN)
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  • 2052-4374(eISSN)
The Korean Society of Occupational & Environmental Medicine (대한직업환경의학회)
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The impacts of working time flexibilization on occupational safety and health: an expert survey

  • Daseul Moon (Center for Labour and Health Research, People's Health Institute) ;
  • Hyunjoo Kim (Serious Accidents Scholars and Experts Network)
  • Received : 2023.05.16
  • Accepted : 2023.06.21
  • Published : 2023.12.31
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Abstract

The policy proposal by the current Korean government that proposes flexible overtime rules is causing social controversy. This study has explored the 612 experts' opinions on the occupational safety and health impacts of the policy using an online self-report survey. They expected short-term overwork (87.25%), overwork inequality (86.44%), irregular working hours (84.31%), chronic overwork (84.15%), long working hours (83.66%), and unpredictability of working hours (81.86%) as a result of the policy change. They also responded that the policy change would increase industrial accident deaths (87.25%), mental illnesses (87.09%), deaths due to overwork or cardiovascular diseases (83.84%), and accidents (83.33%). They disagreed that the government's flexibilization policy, while agreeing that the necessity of policies on regulating night work (94.77%), guaranteeing wages to eliminate overtime (90.36%), establishing working time regulations for the bogus self-employed (82.84%), and applying the 52-hour workweek system to all workplaces (76.47%). These expert opinions are consistent with previous research on the health effects of working hours.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study is the part of the evaluation of the Serious Accident Punishment Act conducted by the Serious Accidents Scholars and Experts Network. We would like to thank the Network members for their support and the members of 22 safety and health- or serious accidentrelated civil and academic societies who participated in the survey.

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