OBJECTIVES

: The purpose of this study is to identify the association between precarious employment and health status of workers who have experienced injuries. Ministry of Employment and Labor in South Korea reported that the number of workers who suffered injuries was 89,848 in 2017, 10,305 in 2018, and the estimated economic loss increased to 22.2 trillion won in 2017 and 25.2 trillion won in 2018.

METHODS

: Data of injured workers were extracted from the wave1-wave5 Panel Study of Worker’s Compensation Insurance (PSWCI). At the 1st wave (2013), information was obtained 1,268 employed workers and 535 unemployed workers who experienced injuries. Precarious work was defined on the basis of employment maintenance. If employment status of injured workers changes from employment to unemployment, we identify that the workers are in unstable employment. The outcome was self-rated health with five response categories. Confounding factors included age, gender, marital status, education, work period, type of accident, income, chronic diseases, drinking and smoking. Propensity scores for each individual to be a precarious worker were calculated from logistic models including those covariates, and based on them, precarious workers were matched to non-precarious workers. Then, we examined the effects of precarious employment on health using panel linear regression models.

RESULTS

: The finding indicates that precariousness of employment was associated with higher coefficient (b=.206, p<0.001) of decreasing self-rated health over time.

CONCLUSIONS

: This suggests that to improve the health status of injured workers in South Korea, policy strategies of worker’s compensation insurance need to be extended to effort to maintain the employment status of workers who experienced injuries. There is no doubt that job insecurity, which is pervasive among injured workers in Korea, should be minimized by expending the compensation insurance policies.