PLoS ONE
Volume 13, Issue 9, 2018

Workplace psychosocial stressors experienced by migrant workers in Australia: A cross-sectional study (Article) (Open Access)

Milner A. , Reid A. , Daly A.* , Carey R.N. , Darcey E. , Chih H. , LaMontagne A.D.
  • a Centre for Health Equity, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  • b School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia
  • c School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia
  • d School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia
  • e Centre for Genetic Origins of Health and Disease, Royal Perth Hospital Medical Research Foundation, Perth, Australia
  • f School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia
  • g Centre for Population Health Research, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia, Centre for Health Equity, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Abstract

Objective To explore work-related psychosocial stressors among people of Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking backgrounds currently working in Australia. Methods In 2015, a telephone survey of 585 Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic-speaking workers asked about workplace bullying, ethnic discrimination, job complexity, degree of control, security and fairness of payment along with demographic and employment information. Estimates of job-related psychosocial stressors were derived and regression analyses used to identify significant associations. Results At least one workplace stressor was reported by 83% of the workers in the study. Education was significantly associated with experiencing any psychosocial stressor and also with the total number of stressors. Workers aged 45 years and older were more likely to be bullied or experience racial discrimination compared with younger workers of any ethnicity. There was a greater likelihood of reporting low control over a job when the interview was conducted in a language other than English and the workers were either Chinese or Arabic. Workers on a fixed-term contract, independent of ethnicity were more likely to report a job with low security. Overall psychosocial job quality decreased with education and was associated with occupation type which interacted with ethnicity and gender. Conclusions The results suggest that job-related psychosocial stressors are widespread but not uniform across ethnic groups. Further research into what drives differences in work experience for migrant groups would provide information to guide both employers and migrants in ways to reduce workplace psychosocial stressors. © 2018 Daly et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

education Occupational Stress educational status Australia employer human job stress middle aged ethnic group Aged language Cross-Sectional Studies interview bullying Surveys and Questionnaires migrant worker Young Adult cross-sectional study racism workplace Adolescent psychology male occupation Humans female questionnaire Article adult gender migration human experiment age Age Factors work experience ethnicity Transients and Migrants
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85053600224&doi=10.1371%2fjournal.pone.0203998&partnerID=40&md5=bbba14a73f25d877ae18497a987658da
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203998
ISSN: 19326203
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English