Occupational Safety and Health Coordinators – Puzzle-piece Caretakers or Necessary Evils

The construction industry continues to be high-risk in terms of occupational safety and health (OSH) issues. A pivotal instrument in preventing these risks at both European and Danish levels is the OSH coordinator. In spite of the important role of the coordinator, little research on their roles and functions exist, and critics have pointed out that OSH professionals in general may only confer limited impact on preventive OSH work. This study argues that professional identities and struggles to maintain preferred, as well as rejecting unwanted identities are highly important to understand OSH coordinators’ practices. The study investigates OSH coordinators professional identities and their implications for practice through analysis of interviews with 12 experienced OSH coordinators in the Danish construction industry. The study reveals how struggles for maintaining a positive self-image and social recognition may explain why coordinators struggle to prioritize preventing OSH risks over legitimization and social practices

Habituating pain:Questioning pain and physical strain as inextricable conditions in the construction industry

In this article, we investigate the relations between discursive practices within the Danish construction industry and the perceived pain, physical deterioration, and strain affecting the construction workers. Of central importance is the widely accepted hegemonic discourse on physical strain and pain as unavoidable conditions in construction work. Based on 32 semi-structured interviews performed in eight case studies within four different construction professions, workers’ descriptions of physical strain and its relation to the organizational and social context are analyzed through concepts of subject positioning in discursive practice and a focus on power relations. The analysis shows that workers and employers reproduce certain types of traditional working class masculinities and search for high-pace productive working rhythms, which in combination with economic incentives common within the industry reproduce physical strain and the habituation of pain as unquestioned conditions in construction work. The understanding of this mutual reinforcement of the necessity of physically straining, painful, high-paced construction work provides fruitful perspectives on the overrepresentation of musculoskeletal deterioration within construction work and also sheds light on some of the difficulties in addressing and changing occupational health and safety practices in the construction industry

Sammenhæng mellem ny teknologi i seniorarbejdslivet og beslutningen om at forlade arbejdsmarkedet før eller efter folkepensionsalderen

Den demografi ske udvikling med en aldrende befolkning og den lovbestemte hævelse af pensionsalderen har medvirket til, at især spørgsmålet om seniorers deltagelse på arbejdsmarkedet fylder meget i den offentlige debat. Sideløbende gennemgår arbejdsmarkedet, og den måde vi arbejder på, grundlæggende forandringer i disse år, hvor en stigende grad af automatisering og digitalisering i vid udstrækning – og på tværs af brancher – forandrer arbejdets indhold og organisering. Artiklen, der tager udgangspunkt i Arbejdslivsundersøgelsen (survey blandt 10.776 seniormedarbejdere) i projektet SeniorArbejdsLiv, undersøger hvorvidt indførsel af- og uddannelse i ny teknologi har betydning for seniorernes beslutning om at forlade arbejdsmarkedet før eller efter folkepensionsalderen på tværs af tre distinkte jobfunktionskategorier (arbejde med symboler, arbejde med mennesker, arbejde med produktion).Background: Demographic changes are resulting in an ageing population and increasing labour market participation among older workers is, therefore, a political priority. Along with demographic changes, the labor market, and the way we work, is undergoing fundamental change in these years. This applies to an increasing degree of automation and digitalisation where the implementation of new technologies to a large extent – and across industries – is changing the content and organization of the work. This may mean that the working population, including senior employees, must show even higher levels of adaptability to meet the future working life and its challenges. Aim: To investigate the association between implementation of new technology and the intention to leave the labour market before or after statutory retirement age across job function. Methods: The study is based on the employee survey in the project SeniorWorkingLife where 10,776 senior workers (+50) in 2018 answered questions about implementation, and education and training in new technologies in the workplace. Logistic regression was used to model the odds of either leaving the labor market before or after statutory retirement age due to new technology as a function of 1) strata (job function category: work with symbols, work with people, work with production) and 2) factors related to the introduction of technology (involvement in the introduction of the new technology, adequate training in the use of the new technology, the need for new skills as a result of the new technology, and whether the new technology either increases or deteriorates the quality of the work). Results: The fully adjusted model showed higher odds of leaving the labor market before retirement age due to new technology (push) and lower odds of staying in the labor market until after retirement due to new technology (stay) among senior employees working with people. In addition, new technology at work contributes less to stay among women, while neither push nor stay due to new technology seems to be associated with the age of the seniors. In addition, factors such as involvement in the introduction of the new technology, adequate training in the use of the new technology, needing new skills as a result of the new technology, and whether the new technology either raises or deteriorates the quality of work are important for whether the technology is perceived as a push or stay factor. Discussion: The introduction of new technology into working life appears to be a factor that infl uences seniors’ intention to leave the labor market before or after retirement age. In particular, implementation of new technology seemed to have an impact on the seniors who work with people who are more likely to be pushed out of the labor market due to the new technology. Importantly, employee involvement in the implementation process along with education and skills development have an infl uence on whether technology is perceived as a factor that can extend or shorten working life

Occupational Identities and Physical Exertion in (re)configurations of New Technologies in Eldercare

New technologies are perceived as a solution to the rising proportion of people requiring elderly care across the Nordic countries. Implementing technologies has unforeseen consequences for the content of work and the working environment. This interview-based study within Danish elderly care investigates the consequences of physical exertion for the work and occupational identities of care workers. Through analytical framework integrating positioning theory and agential realism, the study shows that new technologies in certain constellations may further synergies between the reduction of physical exertion and occupational identities, and in others may harm this relation. The study contributes to empirical knowledge about implementing technologies and to discussions of moral literacy and workarounds within care work by suggesting that the ability to openly judge and question physical and ethical consequences of employing technologies is a valuable competence for care workers and, in addition, that furthering these competences is a challenge for managers and legislators