Associations between temporary employment and occupational injury: what are the mechanisms?

Fernando G Benavides ^1*, Joan Benach ¹, Carles Muntaner ², George L Delclos ³, Nuria Catot ¹ and Marcelo Amable ¹

¹ Occupational Health Research Unit, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
² Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Canada
³ Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Texas School of Public, United States

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: fernando.benavides{at}upf.edu.

Accepted 10 February 2006

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether observed higher risks of occupational injury among temporary workers are due to exposure to hazardous working conditions and/or to lack of job experience level.

Methods: Data systematically recorded for 2000 and 2001 by the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs on fatal and nonfatal traumatic occupational injuries were examined by type of employment and type of accident, while adjusting for gender, age, occupation and length of employment in the company. In the study period there were 1,500 fatal and 1,806,532 nonfatal traumatic occupational injuries that occurred at the workplace. Incidence rates and rate ratios (RR) were estimated using Poisson regression models.

Results: Temporary workers showed a rate ratio of 2.94 for nonfatal occupational injuries (CI95%: 2.40 - 3.61) and 2.54 for fatal occupational injuries (CI95%: 1.88 - 3.42). When these associations were adjusted by gender, age, occupation, and especially by the length of employment, they loose the statistic significant: 1.05 (CI95%: 0.97-1.12) for nonfatal and 1.07 (CI95%: 0.91- 1.26) for fatal.

Conclusions: The lower job experience and knowledge of workplace hazards, measured by length of employment, is a possible mechanism to explain the consistent association between temporary workers and occupational injury. The role of working conditions associated with temporary jobs should be assessed more specifically.

Keywords: occupational health, occupational injury, temporary workers

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