Conference Agenda

For years, the impact of algorithmic management on occupational health has remained under heated discussion; however, to date, evidence to reach conclusions is scarce. This study aims to shed light on this debate by adopting a non-deterministic approach, which considers the impact of technology within the framework of broader non-technological occupational health determinants. Using data from the 2022 Flash Eurobarometer OSH Pulse Survey, which includes over 27,000 respondents from 29 European countries, this article assesses the impact of digital performance monitoring, automated work attribution, and biological indicators monitoring. The findings reveal that algorithmic management tools have a nuanced impact, sometimes being associated with a lower probability of detrimental OSH outcomes arising from non-technological risks, while in other cases, associated with a higher probability of such outcomes. Overall, although these tools have the potential to improve safety, their effectiveness is highly context-dependent and, more importantly, the magnitude of their effect is never enough to equalize scenarios where “traditional” OSH risks are absent. The study concludes that addressing traditional OSH challenges should remain a priority, advocating for a balanced approach that integrates technology in a critical manner and does not lose sight of broader workplace sources of risk to workers.

This paper examines the experiences of content moderators in India and Kenya and the implications for their rights to a safe and healthy work environment. Content moderators play a pivotal role in monitoring digital platforms by reviewing and filtering user-generated content. Content moderation is outsourced by big tech to developing countries such as India and Kenya, however, compared to their counterparts in the Global North they earn significantly lower wages. Furthermore, these workers operate in conditions akin to forced labour and they are exposed to inappropriate, offensive and gruesome content that severely impacts their mental health.

Labour laws remain unequipped to protect these workers. For instance, Indian labour laws provide some general safeguards regarding employment rights, but there are no specific regulations addressing the psychological risks associated with prolonged exposure to harmful content. Similarly, the legal framework of Kenya provides health and safety safeguards but the dynamic of employment arrangement remains ambiguous thereby leaving these workers vulnerable. In both these countries, mental health concerns are stigmatised which further exacerbates the indecent working conditions of content moderators.

The absence of a clear legal framework, coupled with the unique mental health issues of content moderation, highlights the urgent need for socio-legal reforms. Using desk-based research, this paper highlights the mental health challenges that content moderators encounter and examines the legislative loopholes. Furthermore, this paper aims to develop a theoretical legal framework to facilitate a healthy work environment and psychological support systems for content moderators in India and Kenya.

Precarious employment can be conceptualised as multidimensional, involving but not limited to employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protection in the employment relationship. It can affect both informal and formal workers, and is often perceived as a key determinant of health inequity among workers (Gunn et al., 2021).

Scholarship in the area of occupational health and safety has established that those in precarious employment suffer poorer OHS outcomes than those in more standard forms of employment (Quinlan & Bohle, 2004; Underhill & Quinlan, 2011). As argued by Quinlan and Bohle (2004) in their Pressures, Disorganisation and Regulatory failure model, the pressure of working long hours in low paid work which is often unregulated and unprotected undermines health quality and safety precautions. However, informal workers in developing economies who work in conditions that are entirely unregulated have far poorer OHS outcomes than precarious workers anywhere else (Lund & Marriott, 2011).

This study utilises the qualitative approach of semi structured interviews to answer the research question “What are the specific drivers of risk to health and safety for Indonesia’s construction workers?”. It argues that along with the risks of financial pressures and the disorganisation associated with informal work, a lack of regulatory oversight and enforcesment contributes significantly to poor OHS outcomes. Indonesian OHS law could offer some protection for informal workers, however their lack of knowledge, power and engagement with formal institutions, mean that these protections are rarely activated. Whilst collective organisations exist to represent these workers and educate them on their labour rights, informal construction workers are difficult to access and organise due to the ephemeral and itinerant nature of their employment.

This study seeks to assess the parameters of applicability for the PDR model in Indonesia. It also considers whether the model requires some adaptation in a developing country context where the activation of employee voice is, challenging. In conclusion, it will argue that informal workers – who lack enabling conditions to support individual agency and voice – need safe access to forms of collective representation to legitimise their concerns. Despite the inherent difficulties associated with seeking such representation for these workers, some form of collective representation is necessary to create conditions for safer workplaces and more secure employment relationships. Collective representation could also be supportive of building a broader social movement to improve the effectiveness of regulations and practices that will safeguard their futures.

Decent work is a term used to describe employment that respects the rights of workers and the fundamental rights of the human person. Ship-breaking refers to the dismantling of outdated vessels for the purpose of recycling their materials. In India, the Alang Ship-breaking Yard stands out as one of the most prominent facilities, recognized as the largest ship-breaking yard globally. In nations such as India, the ship-breaking sector is characterized by its reliance on manual labour and is regarded as one of the most perilous and accident-prone industries. Incidents and health-related issues are prevalent at Alang, where the working environment is severely lacking in safety both within and outside the yard. Employers impose the terms and conditions of employment, leaving workers with little choice but to accept them. This article aims to investigate the working conditions experienced by employees at the Alang ship-breaking yard and to evaluate the enforcement of various industrial and labour regulations in that context. The results indicate that 8 out of every 100 workers encounter accidents daily, while 9 out of 100 are susceptible to health issues at the yard. This ratio is alarmingly high for a recognized industry. Furthermore, it has been observed that the applicable laws governing the industry are frequently disregarded at the yard, leading to the exploitation of labour.

Existing literature highlights a bidirectional relationship between mental health and economic outcomes, where mental distress leads to reduced productivity, higher unemployment, and lower income, while economic shocks contribute to mental illness (Ridley, 2020; Killingsworth et al., 2023). However, research on employment quality and mental health remains limited, particularly for informal workers. This study seeks to bridge this gap by distinguishing subcategories of informal work, such as gig workers, home-based workers, and daily labourers while assessing multiple dimensions of employment quality. We hypothesise that informal workers are more vulnerable to mental distress and examine whether social integration (measured through employment status, job search methods, and workplace interactions) and productivity can mitigate this relationship. Additionally, we focus on vulnerable groups (youth, women, and the elderly) to analyse heterogeneous effects. Women in least-developed countries (LDCs) often dedicate a significant proportion of their time to unpaid care work, affecting their employment quality and mental well-being. In Thailand, demographic shifts have resulted in an ageing workforce and declining youth participation, contributing to volatile productivity growth (<3%) and rising youth unemployment, particularly among women (ILO, 2020). The unpaid care burden on Thai women further constrains their participation in the formal labour force (Bui et al., 2024).

Using secondary datasets such as the 2015 Mental Health Survey (MHS), 2015 Informal Employment Survey (IES), and 2015 Time Use Survey (TUS), this study explores the multi-faceted causes and effects of employment quality in the informal sector. We define informal employment based on the ILO (2013) and Thailand’s National Statistics Office standards, considering dimensions such as work status (self-employed, daily wage), work location (home, street, market), working conditions (continuity, accidents), work hours (irregular, multiple shifts), and social security (lack of benefits or insurance). Mental health outcomes are measured using two subjective well-being indicators: Life Satisfaction, measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988) and Mental Health Distress, using Z-Score to standardise distress measure. We also construct the Composite Mental Health Score (Likert Scale Average), which assigns equal weight to all well-being factors to calculate a single mental health score to test for the robustness of our measurement. To address endogeneity, we use workplace entitlements (social security, benefits, and protections) as instrumental variables to control for unobserved factors affecting both mental health and employment quality. This study provides new insights into the intersection of informal work, employment quality, and mental health, informing policy interventions to improve workers' well-being.