How binding are legal limits? Transitions from temporary to permanent work in Spain

This paper studies the duration pattern of xed-term contracts and the determinantsof their conversion into permanent ones in Spain, where the share of xed-termemployment is the highest in Europe. We estimate a duration model for temporaryemployment, with competing risks of terminating into permanent employment versusalternative states, and exible duration dependence. We nd that conversion rates aregenerally below 10%. Our estimated conversion rates roughly increase with tenure,with a pronounced spike at the legal limit, when there is no legal way to retain theworker on a temporary contract. We argue that estimated di¤erences in conversionrates across categories of workers can stem from di¤erences in worker outside optionsand thus the power to credibly threat to quit temporary jobs.

Children's work in Spanish textiles during the 19th and 20th Centuries

This essay deals with the reasons explaining children s work in 19th century textile factories and their removal during the first part of the 20th century. The inadequacy of the structure of incomes and expenditures of the household and the very low economic incentives to educate children can explain why children were in the factories and not in the school. Moreover, the marginal economic contribution to the economy of the household of a child was the same as that of his mother. This normally implied that women and children were perfect substitutes. When the family had a child at working age this allowed to replace the paid work input of the mother. With the beginnings of the 20th century a set of changes leading to the increase of women s productivity and hourly real wages, switched the situation and involved the new incorporation of women into paid work and the investment in children s human capital.

INTERMED predicts non-return to work in an occupational rehabilitation setting for individuals with orthopaedic trauma-Part I

Introduction.- Knowledge of predictors of an unfavourable outcome, e.g. non-return to work after an injury enables to identify patients at risk and to target interventions for modifiable predictors. It has been recently shown that INTERMED; a tool to measure biopsychosocial complexity in four domains (biologic, psychologic, social and care, with a score between 0-60 points) can be useful in this context. The aim of this study was to set up a predictive model for non-return to work using INTERMED in patients in vocational rehabilitation after orthopaedic injury.Patients and methods.- In this longitudinal prospective study, the cohort consisted of 2156 consecutively included inpatients with orthopaedic trauma attending a rehabilitation hospital after a work, traffic or sport related injury. Two years after discharge, a questionnaire regarding return to work was sent (1502 returned their questionnaires). In addition to INTERMED, 18 predictors known at baseline of the rehabilitation were selected based on previous research. A multivariable logistic regression was performed.Results.- In the multivariate model, not-returning to work at 2 years was significantly predicted by the INTERMED: odds-ratio (OR) 1.08 (95% confidence interval, CI [1.06; 1.11]) for a one point increase in scale; by qualified work-status before the injury OR = 0.74, CI (0.54; 0.99), by using French as preferred language OR = 0.60, CI (0.45; 0.80), by upper-extremity injury OR = 1.37, CI (1.03; 1.81), by higher education (> 9 years) OR = 0.74, CI (0.55; 1.00), and by a 10 year increase in age OR = 1.15, CI (1.02; 1.29). The area under the receiver-operator-characteristics curve (ROC)-curve was 0.733 for the full model (INTERMED plus 18 variables).Discussion.- These results confirm that the total score of the INTERMED is a significant predictor for return to work. The full model with 18 predictors combined with the total score of INTERMED has good predictive value. However, the number of variables (19) to measure is high for the use as screening tool in a clinic.

Welfare Work in Iowa, 1921.

This book, by Marcus L. Hansen, supplements a previously written book by him called Welfare Campaigns in Iowa. It details accounts of particular groups or organizations in Iowa that were active in welfare campaigns or work during World War I.

Die Krankheit Depression kann jeden treffen [In Process Citation].

The survey "Datenerhebung zur Depression in der Allgemeinbevölkerung" was conducted from fall 2010 to spring 2011 on several online platforms. The results show that there is a considerable timespan between the appearance of initial symptoms of depression and the first diagnosis of a patient. Intervention at early stages of the disease can reduce a potentially long time of suffering and can lead to the successful treatment of depression. General practitioners play an important role as the link between patient and psychiatrist.

INTERMED predicts non-return to work in an occupational rehabilitation setting for individuals with orthopaedic trauma-part 2

Introduction.- The model presented in part I (19 predictors) had good predictive values for non-return to work 2 years after vocational rehabilitation for orthopaedic trauma. However, the number of predictors is high for the detection of patients at risk in a clinic. For example, the INTERMED for itself consists of 20 questions and needs 20 minutes to be filled in. For this reason, the aim of this study was to compare the predictive value of different models for the prediction of non-return to work.Patients and methods.- In this longitudinal prospective study, the cohort consisted of 2156 included inpatients with orthopaedic trauma attending a rehabilitation hospital after a work, traffic, sport or leisure related injury. Two years after discharge, 1502 patients returned a questionnaire regarding return to work. We compared the area under the receiver-operator-characteristics curve (ROC) between different models: INTERMED total score, the 4 partial INTERMED scores, the items of the most predictive partial score; with or without confounders.Results.- The ROC for the total score of the INTERMED plus the five confounders of the of the part one (qualified work, speaking French, lesion of upper extremity, education and age) was 0.72. The sole partial INTERMED score to predict return to work was the social sub score. The ROC for the five items of the latter sub score of the INTERMED was 0.69. The ROC for the five items of the social subscale of the INTERMED combined with five predictors was 0.73. This was significantly better than the use of only the five items from INTERMED alone (delta 0.034; 95% CI 0.017 to .050). The model presented in part I (INTERMED total score plus 18 predictors) was not significantly better than the five items INTERMED social score plus five confounders.Discussion.- The use of a model with ten variables (INTERMED social five items plus five confounders) has good predictive value to detect patients not returning to work after vocational rehabilitation after orthopaedic trauma. The parsimony of this model facilitates its use in a clinic for the detection of patients at risk.

Hypertension et adhérence thérapeutique: un challenge de tous les jours [In Process Citation].

Hypertension is a cardiovascular risk factor frequently encountered in everyday practice. A drug therapy is often necessary to normalize blood pressure. However, despite adequate intensive drug treatment, adequate blood pressure target are not reached. Lack of adherence to treatment is often the cause. This article reviews various techniques for assessing patients' adherence and offers several ways to improve it.

Symptoms of chronic stress at work in NGO workers

Working in a NGO often involves providing life saving resources (food, medicine, equipment, water, etc) to needy populations around the globe. Such duty requires highly dedicated employees and humanitarian workers are said to face a hign degree of pressure in their daily work. Despite the evidence of taxing work demands, and a high potential for stress related problems, very few studies on occupational chronic stress have specifically looked at NGO workers. Assuming that "field stress" can relay to workers at headquarters, we carried out an exploratory study about occupational health among employees of a NGO's headquarters. We sent a questionnaire to all employees (N=130) of a NGO headquarters located in Switzerland. We used the TST questionnaire (French version of the Langner's questionnaire on psychiatric symptoms) to identify cases with potential mental health problems. We also included in the questionnaire some items about motivation, acknowledgment, work-life balance, job demand, and autonomy. A total of 75 employees answered our questionnaire (57% response rate). 44% of our sample were men (n=33) and 56% were women (n=42). The mean age was of 40 years (SD=7.6). 56% were working at the headquarters of the NGO in questions as of 2 years or less. Not surprisingly, a majority of respondents reported to be highly motivated (74%) and the meaning of work was important for 80% of them. However, 35% indicated having problems in conciliating their private and professional life. Most frequent reported symptoms included feeling "weak all over" (81%), having "trouble getting asleep often" (35%), "clogging in nose" (35%), feeling "nervous often" (33%), and "memory not all right" (33%). The score for psychiatric symptoms was high in 8 (11%) employees whose health might therefore be at risk. In comparison, other sudies showed that this proportion was 9% for French teachers and 16% for sales personnel1. Results show that symptoms of mental health problems do occur among NGO workers. Some of these symptoms are known to be linked to occupational stress. Chronic stress manifests itself first in non-specific symptoms (e.g. fatigue) and later in specific pathologies. This could explain the relatively low proportion of cases with a high score in Langner's scale than was expected. Therefore, we hypothesize a healthy worker effect. The fact that our sample is 40 years old in average, and that the turnover is quite high can also support this hypothesis. Further research is needed in order to better understand occupational stress in this specific population. An upcoming study will investigate the role of organizational factors associated with health complaints. Therefore, a longitudinal survey including quantitative and qualitative methods is appropriate.