Comparing precarious employment across countries: measurement invariance of the employment precariousness scale for europe (EPRES-E)

Comparing precarious employment (PE) across countries is essential to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon and to learn from country-specific experiences. However, this is hampered by the lack of internationally meaningful measures of PE. We aim to address this point by assessing the measurement invariance (MI) of the Employment Precariousness Scale for Europe (EPRES-E), an adaptation of the EPRES construct in the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). EPRES-E consists of 13 proxy-indicators sorted into six dimensions: temporariness, disempowerment, vulnerability, wages, exercise of rights, unpredictable working times. Drawing on EWCS-2015, MI of the second-order factor model was tested in a sample of 31,340 formal employees by means of (a) multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, and (b) the substantive exploration of EPRES-E mean scores in each country (...

A mobile Scenario for Electronic Publishing based on the MIPAMS Architecture

This paper describes several scenarios for the management of digital media, focusing on electronic publishing from mobile environments. The solution proposed in those scenarios is based on MIPAMS (Multimedia Information Protection And Management System), a service-oriented Digital Rights Management (DRM) platform, which enables the creation, registration and distribution of multimedia content in a secure way, respecting intellectual property rights. The particularity of the mobile scenario with respect to others is the limited capability of mobile devices. A specific use case has been identified for the mobile environment and a new system, based on MIPAMS, has been designed for the electronic publishing environment.Postprint (published version

Precarious Employment and Stress : The Biomedical Embodiment of Social Factors. PRESSED Project Study Protocol

Juan de la Cierva Incorporación fellowship (IJCI-2017-33999) ; ICREA Academia programThe PRESSED project aims to explain the links between a multidimensional measure of precarious employment and stress and health. Studies on social epidemiology have found a clear positive association between precarious employment and health, but the pathways and mechanisms to explain such a relationship are not well-understood. This project aims to fill this gap from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating the social and biomedical standpoints to comprehensively address the complex web of consequences of precarious employment and its effects on workers' stress, health and well-being, including health inequalities. The project objectives are: (1) to analyze the association between multidimensional precarious employment and chronic stress among salaried workers in Barcelona, measured both subjectively and using biological indicators; (2) to improve our understanding of the pathways and mechanisms linking precarious employment with stress, health and well-being; and (3) to analyze health inequalities by gender, social class and place of origin for the first two objectives. The study follows a sequential mixed design. First, secondary data from the 2017 Survey on Workers and the Unemployed of Barcelona is analyzed (N = 1,264), yielding a social map of precarious employment in Barcelona that allows the contextualization of the scope and characteristics of this phenomenon. Drawing on these results, a second survey on a smaller sample (N = 255) on precarious employment, social precariousness and stress is envisaged. This study population is also asked to provide a hair sample to have their levels of cortisol and its related components, biomarkers of chronic stress, analyzed. Third, a sub-sample of the latter survey (n = 25) is selected to perform qualitative semi-structured interviews. This allows going into greater depth into how and why the experience of uncertainty, the precarization of living conditions, and the degradation of working conditions go hand-in-hand with precarious employment and have an impact on stress, as well as to explore the potential role of social support networks in mitigating these effects

Precarious employment and mental health in Europe : Development, validation, and association with mental health of a novel cross-national measure

This dissertation aims to advance knowledge on the contours of precarious employment (PE) as a social determinant of health by developing, validating, and evaluating the association with mental health of a novel measure of PE in Europe. A multidimensional summative scale conceptually grounded on the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) was built drawing on the European Working Conditions Survey-2015. Such scale, (namely, EPRES-E) consists of 13 items sorted into six dimensions (temporariness, vulnerability, disempowerment, exercise of rights, wages, and unpredictability of working times). The proposed structure proved to be valid first in Spain and, thereafter, in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Accordingly, the role of welfare states in the relationship between EPRES-E and poor mental health was tested in these countries, both among women and men. Consistent associations were found in all genders and welfare states analyzed. Besides, Central-Eastern welfare states were found to aggravate the abovementioned relationship among women, compared to their counterparts in continental welfare states. No differences were found among men, though.Aquesta tesi té com a objectiu avançar en el coneixement sobre la configuració de la precarietat laboral (PL) com a determinant social de la salut desenvolupant, validant i avaluant l'associació amb salut mental d'una nova mesura de PL a Europa. Es va construir una escala sumativa multidimensional basada conceptualment en l'Escala de Precarietat Laboral (EPRES) a partir de l'Enquesta Europea de Condicions de Treball-2015. Aquesta escala, (és a dir, EPRES-E) consta de 13 ítems ordenats en sis dimensions (temporalitat, vulnerabilitat, desapoderament, exercici de drets, salaris, i imprevisibilitat dels temps de treball). L'estructura proposada va demostrar ser vàlida primer a Espanya i, després, a Àustria, Bèlgica, Croàcia, Dinamarca, Finlàndia, França, Alemanya, Grècia, Irlanda, Itàlia, Lituània, Luxemburg, Països Baixos, Noruega, Polònia, Portugal, Eslovàquia, Eslovènia, Suècia, Suïssa i el Regne Unit. En conseqüència, es va analitzar el paper dels estats del benestar en la relació entre la EPRES-E i la mala salut mental en aquests països, tant en dones com homes. Es van trobar associacions consistents en tots els gèneres i estats del benestar analitzats. A més, es va trobar que els estats del benestar del centre-est accentuaven la relació esmentada entre les dones, en comparació amb les seves homòlogues dels estats del benestar continentals. No es van trobar diferències entre els homes, però

Comparing precarious employment across countries – measurement invariance of the employment precariousness scale for Europe

Comparing precarious employment (PE) across countries is essential to deepen the understanding of the phenomenon and to learn from country-specific experiences. However, this is hampered by the lack of internationally meaningful measures of PE. We aim to address this point by assessing the measurement invariance (MI) of the Employment Precariousness Scale for Europe (EPRES-E), an adaptation of the EPRES construct in the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). EPRES-E consists of 13 proxy-indicators sorted into six dimensions: temporariness, disempowerment, vulnerability, wages, exercise of rights, unpredictable working times. Drawing on EWCS-2015, MI of the second-order factor model was tested in a sample of 31,340 formal employees by means of (a) multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, and (b) the substantive exploration of EPRES-E mean scores in each country. The results demonstrate that threshold invariance holds for the first-order structure (dimensions) of 22 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK), but only metric invariance is attained by the second-order structure. The latter is supported by the exploration of mean scores, where we found that different score patterns in each dimension lead to similar overall EPRES-E scores, suggesting that PE is configured by different sources within the six dimensions in each country according to their broader socio-political trajectories. We conclude that, although EPRES-E can be used for comparative purposes in 22 European countries, the scores of each dimension must be reported alongside the overall EPRES-E score.The research leading to these results has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under grant agreements No. CSO2016-79103R and No. CSO2017-89719-R (AEI/FEDER, UE)

Rights management in architectures for distributed multimedia content applications

There are several initiatives working in the definition and implementation of distributed architectures that enable the development of distributed multimedia applications on top of them, while offering Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. In this chapter, the main features of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) (ISO/IEC, http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org, 2010) and the new Advanced IPTV terminal (AIT) (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11 N11230, 2010), which together will form a future second edition of the MXM standard (renamed to Multimedia Service Platform Technologies) are presented. On the other hand, the DMAG’s (Distributed Multimedia Applications Group (DMAG), http://dmag.ac.upc.edu, 2010) Multimedia Information Protection and Management System (MIPAMS) (Torres et al., Springer, Heidelberg, 2006) is also presented, highlighting the common ground and differences between MIPAMS and the standards. A set of usage scenarios is also proposed to show how MIPAMS enables the development of applications, on top of it, which deal with the needs of content creators, distributors and consumers according to different business models.Peer Reviewe

Non-standard employment and unemployment during the COVID-19 crisis: economic and health findings from a six-country survey study

The COVID-19 crisis is a global event that has created and amplified social inequalities, including an already existing and steadily increasing problem of employment and income insecurity and erosion of workplace rights, affecting workers globally. The aim of this exploratory study was to review employment-related determinants of health and health protection during the pandemic, or more specifically, to examine several links between non-standard employment, unemployment, economic, health, and safety outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Canada, the United States, and Chile, based on an online survey conducted from November 2020 to June 2021. The study focused on both non-standard workers and unemployed workers and examined worker outcomes in the context of current type and duration of employment arrangements, as well as employment transitions triggered by the COVID-19 crisis. The results suggest that COVID-19-related changes in non-standard worker employment arrangements, or unemployment, are related to changes in work hours, income, and benefits, as well as the self-reported prevalence of suffering from severe to extreme anxiety or depression. The results also suggest a link between worker type, duration of employment arrangements, or unemployment, and the ability to cover regular expenses during the pandemic. Additionally, the findings indicate that the type and duration of employment arrangements are related to the provision of personal protective equipment or other COVID-19 protection measures. This study provides additional evidence that workers in non-standard employment and the unemployed have experienced numerous and complex adverse effects of the pandemic and require additional protection through tailored pandemic responses and recovery strategies

Rights management in architectures for distributed multimedia content applications

There are several initiatives working in the definition and implementation of distributed architectures that enable the development of distributed multimedia applications on top of them, while offering Digital Rights Management (DRM) features. In this chapter, the main features of the MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) (ISO/IEC, http://mxm.wg11.sc29.org, 2010) and the new Advanced IPTV terminal (AIT) (ISO/IEC, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11 N11230, 2010), which together will form a future second edition of the MXM standard (renamed to Multimedia Service Platform Technologies) are presented. On the other hand, the DMAG’s (Distributed Multimedia Applications Group (DMAG), http://dmag.ac.upc.edu, 2010) Multimedia Information Protection and Management System (MIPAMS) (Torres et al., Springer, Heidelberg, 2006) is also presented, highlighting the common ground and differences between MIPAMS and the standards. A set of usage scenarios is also proposed to show how MIPAMS enables the development of applications, on top of it, which deal with the needs of content creators, distributors and consumers according to different business models.Peer Reviewe

Experiences of insecurity among non-standard workers across different welfare states: A qualitative cross-country study

In recent decades, economic crises and political reforms focused on employment flexibilization have increased the use of non-standard employment (NSE). National political and economic contexts determine how employers interact with labour and how the state interacts with labour markets and manages social welfare policies. These factors influence the prevalence of NSE and the level of employment insecurity it creates, but the extent to which a country's policy context mitigates the health influences of NSE is unclear. This study describes how workers experience insecurities created by NSE, and how this influences their health and well-being, in countries with different welfare states: Belgium, Canada, Chile, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Interviews with 250 workers in NSE were analysed using a multiple-case study approach. Workers in all countries experienced multiple insecurities (e.g., income and employment insecurity) and relational tension with employers/clients, with negative health and well-being influences, in ways that were shaped by social inequalities (e.g., related to family support or immigration status). Welfare state differences were reflected in the level of workers' exclusion from social protections, the time scale of their insecurity (threatening daily survival or longer-term life planning), and their ability to derive a sense of control from NSE. Workers in Belgium, Sweden, and Spain, countries with more generous welfare states, navigated these insecurities with greater success and with less influence on health and well-being. Findings contribute to our understanding of the health and well-being influences of NSE across different welfare regimes and suggest the need in all six countries for stronger state responses to NSE. Increased investment in universal and more equal rights and benefits in NSE could reduce the widening gap between standard and NSE

A mobile Scenario for Electronic Publishing based on the MIPAMS Architecture

This paper describes several scenarios for the management of digital media, focusing on electronic publishing from mobile environments. The solution proposed in those scenarios is based on MIPAMS (Multimedia Information Protection And Management System), a service-oriented Digital Rights Management (DRM) platform, which enables the creation, registration and distribution of multimedia content in a secure way, respecting intellectual property rights. The particularity of the mobile scenario with respect to others is the limited capability of mobile devices. A specific use case has been identified for the mobile environment and a new system, based on MIPAMS, has been designed for the electronic publishing environment