Differential Socio-Economic Effects of Work Environmental Risk Factors

Efficient resource allocation in the management of occupational health and safety (OHS) in the workplace requires access to information about the effects of different psychosocial and physical risk factors in the workplace on lost working hours and reduced productivity. The present article aims to help the OHS policy-makers in their decisions on allocating economic and human resources to deal with different environmental risk factors and their socio-economic consequences in the workplace. The socio-economic consequences refer substantially to missed and unproductive working hours due to sickness absences and sickness presenteeism respectively. The methodologies employed to fulfil the purpose of this study included methods to estimate marginal effects of different risk factors on lost working hours and labour productivity. The empirical results of the study showed that the psychosocial and physical dimensions of the work environment of the Swedish company Sandvik Materials Technology had different socio-economic impacts in terms of lost working hours and labour productivity. The psychosocial work environment had the greatest impacts, particularly on reducing work ability and work interest among workers and on work-related disorders among female workers.