• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.108-113
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• 2021

Background: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between changes in employment status and new-onset depressive symptoms through a one-year follow-up of permanent waged workers. Methods: We analyzed the open-source data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study. Using the 2017 data, we selected 2,314 permanent waged workers aged 19 to 59 years without depressive symptoms as a base group. The final analysis targeted 2,073 workers who were followed up in 2018. In 2018, there were five categories of employment status for workers who were followed up: permanent, precarious, unemployed, self-employed, and economically inactive. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine the association between employment status change and new-onset depressive symptoms. Results: Adjusted multiple logistic regression analysis showed that among male workers, workers who went from permanent status to being unemployed (odds ratio: 4.50, 95% confidence interval: 1.19 to 17.06) and from permanent status to being precarious workers (odds ratio: 3.15, 95% confidence interval: 1.30 to 7.65) had significantly high levels of new-onset depressive symptoms compared with those who retained their permanent employment status. There were no significant increases in new-onset depressive symptoms of male workers who went from permanent status to being self-employed or economically inactive. On the other hand, no significant differences were found among female workers. Conclusion: Our study suggests that the change of employment status to precarious workers or unemployment can cause new-onset depressive symptoms in male permanent waged workers.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.68 no.4
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• pp.97-118
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• 2016

The primary goal of this study was to investigate factors affecting job satisfaction of injured workers who returned to work. There are two types of injured workers' returning to work returning to pre-injury job and getting a new job. After separating the two types of workers we conducted the multiple regression analysis on the data from the Workers'Compensation Insurance Panel of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service Corporation(2014). The sample consisted of 1,333 occupationally injured workers who were finished with medical treatment(693 workers returned to previous work place, and 640 workers found new work places). Main results are as follows. First, injured workers who got new jobs were vulnerable to sustainability to job, work status, average monthly wage as well as job satisfaction compared with injured workers who returned to pre-injury job. Second, gender, educational level, skill fitness, average monthly wage, welfare benefits, family income/leisure life/residential environment/social relation satisfaction, and maintenance of relation with business owner during medical care were related to job satisfaction of injured workers who returned to pre-injury job. Third, gender, work status, skill fitness, continuous work possibility, average monthly wage, family income/leisure life/social relation satisfaction, substitute worker for assigned task during medical care and maintenance of relation with business owner during medical care affected on job satisfaction of injured workers who got new jobs. Based on these findings implications for policy and interventions were discussed in regards to job satisfaction of injured workers.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.723-728
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• 2022

Most accidents at construction sites are occurring in vulnerable groups such as new workers, foreign workers, and elderly workers. These vulnerable workers often lead to accidents due to the lack of awareness of risks. Therefore, in order to reduce accidents, it is necessary to pay attention to and manage vulnerable workers. This study attempted to identify the level of safety awareness and safety management priorities for vulnerable workers through IPA analysis. New workers should be able to adapt to the field as soon as possible, and foreign workers were found to need frequent check-ups due to language communication problems. In the case of older workers, it was analyzed that it was necessary to check their health and to check whether they were performing other tasks than the prescribed ones.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.249-251
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• 2016

Objectives: Nail salon owners in New York City (NYC) are required to provide their workers with gloves and it is their responsibility to maintain healthy, safe working spaces for their employees. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency with which nail salon workers wear protective gloves. Methods: A Freedom of Information Law request was submitted to New York Department of State's Division of Licensing Services for a full list of nail salons in Manhattan, NYC. A sample population of 800 nail salons was identified and a simple random sample (without replacement) of 30% (n=240) was selected using a random number generator. Researchers visited each nail salon from October to December of 2015, posing as a potential customer to determine if nail salon workers were wearing gloves. Results: Among the 169 salons in which one or more workers was observed providng services, a total of 562 workers were observed. For 149 salons, in which one or more worker was observed providing services, none of the workers were wearing gloves. In contrast, in six of the salons observed, in which one or more workers was providing services, all of the workers (1 in 2 sites, 2 in 1 site, 3 in 2 sites, and 4 in 1 site) were wearing gloves. Almost three-quarters of the total number of workers observed (n=415, 73.8%) were not wearing gloves. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that, despite recent media attention and legislation, the majority of nail salon workers we observed were not wearing protective gloves when providing services.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2010.05b
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• pp.95-97
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• 2010

Current trends in the Korean construction industry, including the aging of the workforce, a lack of new Korean construction workers, and an inflow of unskilled foreign labor, have caused a range of problems, including quality deterioration, reduced productivity, insufficient understanding of the function and difficulties in communication, to name a few. Yet while countermeasures to these problems should be based on accurate and diverse fundamental data, including the current status of demand and supply of domestic and foreign construction workers, the perception of construction workers, studies on these questions have, thus far, been scarce. For these reasons, this study was conducted using a questionnaire for managers and workers on construction sites, to secure fundamental data relating to construction workers. The findings of the survey showed that it is urgent to prepare measures to educate, train and foster human resources, considering the aging of the construction workforce and the lack of an inflow of new construction workers.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.63-99
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• 2019

This paper estimates the effect of the minimum wage increment on employment and work-hour of new workers in Korea using the data from the Survey on Labor Conditions by Type of Employment (SLCTE) from 2008 to 2017. We construct worker groups by sex, age, and education to mitigate endogeneity problem in estimating the effect of minimum wage increment. The result shows that the minimum wage increment leads to decrease of new employment and increase of the ratio of new workers who work less than 15 hours per week. Especially, women, the elderly, the youth, and under high school education level group are sensitive to the minimum wage increment.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.29-50
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• 2012

This paper estimates the effect of minimum wages on new hiring of low wage workers from a time-series. The results indicate that minimum wages tend to reduce the new hiring of low wage workers, in particular, among women, less educated and older population. The strongly negative effect on new hiring suggests that the burden of reduced labor demand arising from higher minimum wages tend to fall mostly upon the unprotected low-wage job searchers due to the short-term rigidity of employment adjustment among the existing workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.384-388
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• 2019

The horse stable hand workers are one of the most important occupations in horse-racing industry. However, suicide problem of the horse stable hand workers in Korea has raised the necessity of new study on how these workers experience mental health problems such as occupational stress and depression in organizational situation. Therefore, this study investigated the occupational stress and depression level of the horse stable hand workers and identified the structural relationship in the horse-racing industry through a detailed interview. A total of 207 horse stable hand workers participated in this study, and occupational stress and depression level were surveyed using the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) and Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D). The results of this study showed that the occupational stress level of horse stable hand workers was higher than the median of Korean population. The significant difference in occupational stress among the detail job grade was also identified. In addition, 34% of the horse stable hand workers showed high risk of depression, and job demand, organizational system, and inappropriate compensation as the subfactors of occupational stress were showed to mainly affect depression. Although there are some limitations according to the field survey, this study also has significant meaning in that it identifies the relationship between the occupational characteristics of the horse stable hand workers and the mental health. It will be necessary to study the diverse organizational situation and individual mental health for new occupations.

• Journal of Information Technology Services
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.315-335
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• 2015

The New Way of Working (NWOW) is changing the world in which we work today. The principles of NWOW are based on freedom of time and place to work, and steering on output (results) instead of input (presence). As NWOW is a relatively new phenomenon, research on the effect of NWOW on knowledge sharing in organizations is scarce. In this research two multiple-case studies were performed to investigate the effect of the New Way of Working on knowledge. In the first study (A) different knowledge sharing scenarios were used at organizations that were in the process of implementing NWOW. This provided the opportunity to compare the sharing of knowledge between 'NWOW workers' and employees that still worked in the traditional way (non-NWOW workers). In total 216 scenario results were evaluated to determine differences in channel choice between the traditional and new work environment. For the second study (B) a Knowledge Sharing Framework was developed, based on the theories of Nonaka and Alavi & Leidner. This framework was used to determine the type of knowledge shared, e.g. tacit or explicit knowledge, in 84 situations. Additionally, to measure the level of NWOW adoption, a NWOW Analysis Monitor was used. The results show that NWOW workers use more different communication channels than traditional workers. When knowledge workers become more mobile, they will exchange knowledge less explicit (codified) and more tacit (personalized), use less face-to-face communication, but more video calls and e-mail. The adoption of the principles of NWOW seems to have a balancing effect on the knowledge that is shared in a tacit and explicit way, which in the view of Scheepers et al. is an effective knowledge sharing strategy. The research results show organizations need to realize that the New World of Working is affecting the way knowledge is shared. Missing out on this development may result in the loss of important knowledge and impact the operation of organizations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.67-73
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• 2016

According to industrial accident analysis of the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2013, 38 workers were injured by fall accidents on average per day, and one worker died on average per day among them. In various industries such as heavy and construction industry, the full body harness is commonly used to prevent the fall accident. In developing full body harness, the designer considered only the workers' safety, without taking into account comfort and workability. The survey was conducted so as to search the problems of full body harness currently used by workers in heavy and construction industry. The survey questionnaire was given to 565 workers wearing full body harness in heavy and construction industry. The results of study showed that the development of new full body harness considering body size of korean was needed. The impotent factors for developing of new full body harness were the size and the weight of the full body harness. The full body harness taking into account body size was judged to contribute to more comfortable work, work efficiency and safety. The result of this study can be utilized as useful data in the development of new full body harness considering the body size of korean workers.