University of Twente Student Theses

Re-integratie bij langdurig zieke werknemers : hangen sekse en andere werknemerskenmerken samen met de duur van het re-integratietraject en de aard van de ingezette re-integratie-instrumenten?

Reitsema-Scheltinga, Ellen (2010) Re-integratie bij langdurig zieke werknemers : hangen sekse en andere werknemerskenmerken samen met de duur van het re-integratietraject en de aard van de ingezette re-integratie-instrumenten?

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Abstract:	The aim of this study is to investigate differences between long term absent male and female employees. The reason for this investigation is the introduction of the Law for Work and Income (WIA). This law was introduced in 2006 instead of the Law of Disability Insurance (WAO), and makes both the employer and employee responsible for the return to work of long term absent employees. The WIA is only actuated after 104 weeks; this used to be 52 weeks for the WAO. The consequence of this change is that employers are to pay their long-term absent employees a year longer by themselves. Another change is the introduction of adverse financial consequences if the employer and the long-term absent employee do not actively participate in the process of return to work. We expect that the introduction of the WIA has had an influence on this process. In this study we investigate whether the gender differences found in research before the introduction of the WIA, can still be found in the new situation. We investigated if there are differences between long-term absent female and male employees with respect to the length of absence, instruments deployed and certain employee characteristics, namely age, professional level and the nature of the disease. We also investigated whether the employee characteristics have a moderating effect on the relation between gender and instruments deployed. Finally, we investigated whether the employee characteristics have a significant relationship with the length of absence and if gender moderates this relationship. The data used in this study were gathered by the TNO for research on return to work of long-term absent employees (Piek et al., 2008). The data is collected by means of 1294 telephone interviews by companies with at least two employees. In this study, only respondents with at least one employee who has been sick for minimal thirteen weeks were selected (N=608). Results show that there are gender differences in employee characteristics: women are younger than men when they are long-term absent, have a higher professional level and do have more psychological complaints. Men clearly have more cardiovascular diseases than women. No gender differences were found in musculoskeletal disorders. In contrast to what we expected, gender has no significant relationship with length of absence. A possible explanation is that due to the introduction of the WIA, the return to work policies for women are improved. Furthermore, gender does not have a significant effect on the reintegration instruments employed. The employee characteristics professional level, psychological complains and musculoskeletal disorders were found to have a moderating effect on this relationship. When we take these employee characteristics into account, there are some gender differences at the instruments deployed. Finally, the results show that there is no significant relationship between the employee characteristics and the length of absence.
Item Type:	Essay (Master)
Faculty:	BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:	77 psychology
Programme:	Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60489
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