Sickness absence, doctors’ appointments and wellbeing of school employees and other municipalities’ employees in the wake of the bank collapse

• Main Authors: Rafnsdóttir, Guðbjörg Linda, Sigursteinsdóttir, Hjördís
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2016
• Subjects: Doctors‘ appointments; sickness absence;school employees;lay off;occupational health; Læknisheimsóknir; veikindafjarvistir;skólastarfsfólk;uppsagnir;vinnutengd heilsa; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/netla/article/view/2385

The article analyses sickness, sickness absence and doctors’ appointments of employees in elementary schools, music schools and kindergartens in comparison to other municipality employees in Iceland in the wake of the bank crash in 2008. While recent studies show insecurity and lack of well-being among those who unwillingly lose their job, this study focuses on the sickness and sickness absence of the survivors; those who were not laid off in the wake of the economic crisis. Very few sociological studies have focused on job insecurity and lack of well-being among employees who have seen downsizing in their own workplaces, without being laid off themselves. Studies of the effect of downsizing on remaining employees show that it has a considerable negative effect on their physical and mental well-being, especially those who work in downsized departments. We ask: Did sickness, sickness absence and medical appointment change among school employees and other employees in Icelandic municipalities in the wake of the bank collapse in 2008? Do issues like layoffs, age, gender, marital status and type of work matter in relation to sickness, sickness absence and medical appointment? Are there any differences in sickness behaviour between school employees and other employees of the municipalities? The study is based on a balanced panel dataset from 2971 employees of 20 municipalities, at three points in time; 2010, 2011 and 2013. The response rate was between 64.5% and 84.4%. Significance was measured with Cochran’s Q test and the chi-square test. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to evaluate the impact of laying off employees, gender, age, marital status and type of work, on sickness and sickness absence among the remaining employees over time. The main findings are that the number of employees who reported sickness absence increased between the time points of the study, along with an increased number of sick days per participant. The panel study shows that increased sickness absence holds for both downsized ...