• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.20.1-20.12
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• 2022

Background: In the manufacturing industry, work-family conflict (WFC) is related to working hour characteristics. Earlier studies on the relationship between working hour characteristics and WFC in the manufacturing industry have been limited to some regions in Korea. No study has addressed the data on a national scale. Thus, this study investigated the impact of weekly working hours, weekend work, and shift work on WFC using national-scale data. Methods: This study was based on the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey of 5,432 manufacturers. WFC consists of 5 variables; WFC1 "kept worrying about work"; WFC2 "felt too tired after work"; WFC3 "work prevented time for family"; WFC4 "difficult to concentrate on work"; WFC5 "family responsibilities prevented time for work". As WFC refers to the inter-role conflict between the need for paid work and family work, WFC has been measured in two directions, work to family conflict (WTFC: WFC1, 2, 3) and family to work conflict (FTWC: WFC4, 5). With these WFC variables, we conducted multiple logistic analyses to study how working hours, weekend work, and shift work impact WFC. Results: Korean manufacturers' prolonged working hours increased all aspects of WFCs. Odds ratios (ORs) of WFCs based on working hours (reference of under 40 hours) of 41-52, 53-60, over 61 were 1.247, 1.611, 2.279 (WFC1); 1.111, 2.561, 6.442 (WFC2); 1.219, 3.495, 8.327 (WFC3); 1.076, 2.019, 2.656 (WFC4); and 1.166, 1.592, 1.946 (WFC5), respectively. Shiftwork in the WFC2 model showed a significantly higher OR of 1.390. Weekend work 'only on Saturday' had significant ORs with WFC2 (1.323) and WFC3 (1.552). Conclusions: An increase in working hours leads to the spending of less time attending to problems between work and family, causing both WTFC and FTWC to increase. As weekends, evenings, and nighttime are considered to be family-friendly to people, working on weekends and shift-work were highly correlated to WTFC.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.227-246
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• 1991

The study examined work and family life of married women employed in a manufacturing industry. Data were gathered from the use of face-to-face interview method from a sample of 230 married working women. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) Most of the respondents found the work repetitive and unappealing, with the double burden of a paid work and housework. Thus, it is necessary for the government to implement social policies for married working women, such as establishment of various child care centers, part-time jobs, and dissemination of egalitarian sex-role attitudes. (2) More than half of the respondents were born in rural areas and immigrated to the urban sectors, forming a nuclear family structure. Most of these women were married with love, but some of them could not have a marriage ceremony because of the economic reasons. Thus, it may be necessary to increase the service centers to offer a free marital ceremony. (3) About 30% of the respondents answered they left their preschool aged children unattended, after dismissing from a kindergarden on a private institution. It was shown that working women, even though they were in charge of child-rearing, did not have an effective mechanism to control or protect their children while they were away from home. Most of them frequently used material compensations from their children in order to make up their absence at home. (4) It was found that the strategy for working women to decrease a dual-role conflict is to make a hierachy on the work they to do and to do only basic housework for everyday life and to do the rest of work on a off-day.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.162-168
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• 2017

Background: Pelvic ring fractures (PRFs) may influence the daily activities and quality of life of the injured. The aim of this retrospective study was to explore the functional outcomes and factors related to return to work (RTW) after PRF. Methods: During the years 2003-2012, 282 injured individuals aged 20-55 years on the date of the accident, were hospitalized and treated for PRFs in a large tertiary hospital in Athens, Greece. One hundred and three patients were traced and contacted; 77 who were on paid employment prior to the accident gave their informed consent to participate in the survey, which was conducted in early 2015 through telephone interviews. The questionnaire included variables related to injury, treatment and activities, and the Majeed pelvic score. Univariate and multiple regression analyses were used for statistical assessment. Results: Almost half of the injured (46.7%) fully RTW, and earning losses were reported to be 35% after PRF. The univariate analysis confirmed that RTW was significantly related to accident site (labor or not), the magnitude of the accident's force, concomitant injuries, duration of hospitalization, time to RTW, engagement to the same sport, Majeed score, and complications such as limp and pain as well as urologic and sexual complaints (p < 0.05 for all). On multiple logistic regression analysis, the accident sustained out of work (odds ratio: 6.472, 95% confidence interval: 1.626-25.769) and Majeed score (odds ratio: 3.749, 95% confidence interval: 2.092-6.720) were identified as independent predictive factors of full RTW. Conclusion: PRFs have severe socioeconomic consequences. Possible predictors of RTW should be taken into account for health management and policies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2013

This paper focuses on the development of analytical models for estimating the changes in saturation flow rates (SFR) at the stop-lines of a signalized intersection due to the existence of nearby work-zones, and thereby calculating the prevailing capacity values for specific lane groups. Major changes were incorporated in the logics of previous models and significant revisions have been made to secure the accuracy and simplicity. Furthermore, much attention was paid to model validation by making comparisons to both extensive simulation results and empirical data from various sites. It was found that SFRs are highly sensitive to the location of work-zones, the distance to each work-zone from the stop-line of a concerned approach, the number of lanes open and closed, and the effective green time. Using such geometric and operating conditions that constitute work-zone environment, the proposed models successfully estimated SFR values with a miniscule margin of error.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.561-572
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• 2018

Female tollgate workers are known to be the most highly exposed to job stress in the service industry. However, there have been few studies on female tollgate workers. This study was thus performed to verify the mediator effect of work-family conflicts in the relationship between job stress and turnover intention of female tollgate workers. A survey was carried out in May, 2016, and the final data were obtained from 183 female tollgate workers by quota sampling. The major result was that their job stress significantly influenced on turnover intention, and work-family conflicts between the two variables were partially mediated. On the basis of the outcomes, first, further studies are needed to develop customized supporting programs for the female tollgate workers; second, internal efforts, such as psychological and social support programs such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), should be launched for the workers at the enterprise level; third, national attention must be paid to improve the work environments of female tollgate workers.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.1 s.41
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• pp.20-36
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• 1993

Work-related low back pain is one of the major factors that cause the loss of working power especially in actively working age, therefore controlling the work-related low back pain is one of the major issues in the field of industrial safety and health. This study was performed for detecting the risk factors and proposing the efficient control program of the work-related low back pain. The subjects were male workers employed at the manufacturing industry in Pusan with longer than 6 months' working duration. The data was collected by self-reported questionnaire and interview from May 1 to October 31,1992. The contents of questionnaire were as follows:. the experience of low back pain within the recent one month, general characteristics(age, marital status, education level, religion, regular exercise), physical characteristics(height, weight), employment status(working duration, daily working hours, rest during work, satis(action fur the job), type of work and working environments(posture, forward bending, lifting and movement, satisfaction for table and chair). The result was analyzed for 608 entire respondents by case-control comparative method. The number of cases was 152 with a history of work-related low back pain, so the relative frequency of self-reported work-related low back pain was 25.0%, and the number of controls was 344 without any history of low back pain. As a result, two characteristics of the employment status(working duration, satisfaction fur the job) and all characteristics of type of work and working environments showed a statistical significance between the case and control groups(p<0.01). The Oddb ratios of these variables for Work-related low back pain were calculated. They were 7.88 for the satisfaction fur chair, 7.86 for lifting and movement,3.31 for satisfaction for table, and 2.22 fur bending forward(p<0.01). And for the multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed that unsatisfaction for table was independent risk factor for Work-related low back pain. In summary, though this study was based upon the self-reported questionnaire and the subjective complaints, the satisfaction for chair, lifting and movement, satisfaction for table, and bending forward concerned with the type of work and working environments were considered as the main factors causing the work-related low back pain, and the work-related low back pain may be preventable by the ergonomic control of these factors.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.185-204
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• 2005

In a period of rapid change, transition and re-definition of care concept, this study reviewed social policies on care providers in the UK. In the face of care crisis, the British government has made a radical reform of the care system and enacted new legislations. In the UK social policy, care providers are classified into carers and care workers. Carers mean informal caregivers and care workers are those who are paid for providing care as part of a contract of employment. Recently, the United Kingdom has given carers recognition and reward. To enhance the status and right of carers, the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, the strategy document Caring about Carers 1999, Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000, and Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 have been enacted. At the heart of the policy for carers is the idea of active citizenship, carers-friendly employment and work-life balance etc. In case of paid care worker, government's focus seems to be on quality of employment. The government has established a new national infrastructure for quality. The five national bodies founded on Care Standards Act 2000 has been established. The UK government has realized care work would play an important part in job creation strategy. In this article, we have presented several criticisms and issues of current care policy in UK.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• autumn
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• pp.73-81
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• 2003

The construction industry has been experiencing a major challenge in its work force, 'the shortage of skilled craft workers.' This problem has been caused by several factors such as the poor image of the construction industry, lack of training and education, unclear career path, declining wages, and changing work force demographics. A 'step-change' approach called the 'Two-Tier Work Force Strategy' has been proposed by the Center for Construction Industry Studies (CCIS) to deal with the work force related issues in a radical way. It is composed of two separate strategies, Tier I and II. The Tier I strategy uses less skilled and task trained craft workers, and has a larger administrative site management team than the Tier II strategy. The Tier II strategy utilizes fewer, better-educated, and higher skilled workers who perform some lower-management functions in addition to craft functions. They are paid more, but produce more through higher skills, stay on the job longer through multi-skilling, and deliver improved project performance in safety, quality, schedule, and cost The Two-Tier Work Force Strategy has the potential to resolve the current work force problems and foster a better work force environment in the future.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.175-199
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• 2007

The study analyzes the characteristics, work stress, satisfaction and attitudes toward dementia of social care work force for dependent elders in Korea. Data were from 502 staffs including social workers, nurses, and direct care workers from 45 diverse type of nursing facilities in Busan and Daegu area. The results of the analysis indicate that they are low paid and overloaded in general. The respondents espoused highly hopeful and person-centered attitudes toward dementia and the elderly, while they showed low level of satisfaction related to work. The stress levels were higher in sub scales concerning care tasks and physical environments in work places. In addition, the results of multiple regression denote that those have higher level of satisfaction who are nurses, have no intension to quit, have more experiences of work education, and working in facilities with more frail elders. Stresses were closely related to higher level of education and the intension to quit. Person centered attitude was more often reported by those who have more elderly clients to take care of and are working in facilities with more elders who are demented and over 80. In particular, the association was consistent between higher level of job satisfaction and the person centered attitude. Several practical suggestions linked to the analysis were made including improving the welfare for staffs working in nursing facilities and providing continuous professional training and education for them particularly on person-centered care. In addition, it was emphasized to raise the morale of social care work force considering the rapidly increasing need of long term care and the important influence that care work force has on older persons' quality of life from now on.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.71-104
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• 2018

This paper adopts a distributive performance process model of in-work poverty based on labor markets, households, and welfare states and analyzes the 4-11 waves of the Korean Welfare Panel Study during 2008-15. Previous studies on in-work poverty have focused on the definitions and concepts of in-work poverty by analyzing employment and unemployment persistence and repetition dynamics, but rarely paid attention to institutional distributive performance. In this regard, this study preforms a stepwise analysis of labor markets, households, and welfare states as a process of income generation in labor markets, satisfaction of welfare needs and income pooling at households, and deduction of social security contribution and income tax as well as receipt of public transfer income at welfare states. Results of empirical analysis show that in-work poverty had been on increase during 2008-11, followed by a decrease between 2012-15. At labor market stages, full time status had the most prominent impact on in-work poverty process, while status by employment and contract type have generated a huge variation as well. At household stages, household work intensity and number of earners contributed to reduction of in-work poverty, but the relations did not seen to be straightforward. However, welfare state played little role in lifting employees out of in-work poverty. In terms of institutional distributive process, in-work poverty was prevalent in either household-welfare state stage or labor market-household-welfare stage. Non-vulnerable group in terms of in-risk poverty was around 80% of the sample during the period of analysis, the size of which has remained constant.