Decent work and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-wave study¹

1Introduction

The new pandemic reality was widespread worldwide and caused drastic and dramatic changes in the economic, social and work areas [1]. Several factors such as social distancing, prophylactic self-isolation, travel restrictions, and quarantine have led to a reduction in the workforce across most economic sectors and, consequently, increased unemployment [2, 3, 4]. The reports by the ILO and other international organisations highlighted the pandemic’s impact on the labour domain. This impact can result in extreme operating environments due to organisations’ difficulty operating in high levels of uncertainty [5]. From an organisational perspective, keeping adequate working conditions to promote and sustain workers’ motivation and well-being can be highly demanding. Such an endeavour requires workers’ confidence in organisations through protective measures [6]. In this broad context, the concept of decent work is of utmost prominence.

The ILO first defined the concept of decent work as the sum of people’s “aspirations for opportunity and income; rights, voice and recognition; family stability and personal development; and fairness and gender equality” [7 p3]. This concept expresses the Human Rights Declaration in the labour sphere, and its integrative characteristics highlight the strength of this concept for intervention [8]. According to the conceptualization of the ILO, 11 substantive elements are integrated into that concept [9]. These 11 components are structured in seven psychological dimensions in workers’ minds [10]. The proposition of the concept of decent work is aligned with other United Nations (UN) initiatives, such as the UN Global Compact [20] and the Millennium Goals [11], being the eighth objective of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals [12]. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) became the Agenda 2030, which addresses various dimensions of sustainable development, and promotes peace and justice to be achieved by developed and developing countries [12, 13]. Therefore, decent work is an aspirational concept that must be used as an ideal to pursue.

A compelling body of evidence suggested that decent work contributes significantly to improving employees’ lives and experiences in their workplaces and plays an essential role in human behaviour related to well-being and performance [14]. Strengthening decent work will improve employees’ psychological capital and life and job satisfaction [15, 16]. Recent studies evidenced that the more decent work conditions are achieved, the more employees are intrinsically motivated by their jobs [14, 16]. Although the current theoretical and empirical knowledge about decent work provided a comprehensible roadmap of employees’ experiences regarding their work under typical circumstances, these changes have not been examined under pandemic context.

The pandemic context objectively affected the last substantive element of decent work (economic and social context). This element influences the way workers perceive their level of decent work since it establishes comparison terms adjusted to that specific context. Additionally, the socio-economic context can objectively affect the working conditions [17], mainly when events affect the entire population. Consequently, the social-economic context affects how decent work can be put into practice [18, 19] and probably how workers assess their work’s content, conditions and context. The socio-economic impact needs to be assessed to cope with the pandemic [20]. However, the macro contextual aspects of the pandemic do not apply to all workers. Many Portuguese organisations remained open during the pandemic and did not implement lay-offs [21]. As such, the perception of decent work by Portuguese workers who maintained the same job and employment conditions does not correspond to the perception of those who lost their jobs or saw working conditions undermined by the pandemic. Some organisational approaches may be important to understand the impact of the pandemic in those organisations.

As work activity and jobs in many organisations remained in previously existing conditions during the crisis, it is likely that social comparison processes could be triggered by workers. According to the social comparison theory [22], people use social reality to adapt their behaviours or opinions and assess themselves through comparison with others. Consequently, by comparing their employment conditions with those who lost their jobs (temporarily or permanently), workers may evaluate their work situation more positively. The equity theory [23] proposes that workers observe what they own in the organisation (e.g., benefits) with their skills, compare themselves with workers who perform the same or similar function, and evaluate through this comparison if they consider it fair. As such, the balance between contribution and remuneration could became more favourable to those who maintained their employment conditions. The social identity theory [24] states that identification translates a perception of uniqueness within the organisation to a point where the individual experiences its success or failure as his own success or failure. Considering that within a reality that caused drastic changes in the economic and work context, many Portuguese organisations ensure the same objective work situation, employees may have recognised and valued the organisational efforts, increasing their emotional belonging. Furthermore, workers are also driven by reciprocity as found by Davlembayeva et al. [25] concerning circular economy. With this background, we hypothesised that in Portuguese organisations that maintained regular activity during the pandemic, the pandemic context would have a positive effect on the workers’ assessment of the level of the decent work dimensions.

Despite the increasing research on decent work, the employees’ perceptions regarding their work have not been examined under pandemic conditions. This study intends to contribute to the existing literature in two ways. First, it makes a unique and valuable contribution towards understanding the role of the objective changes in the context of the employees’ subjective perception. Second, considering that the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest challenge of this era [26], this study addresses a historical moment and a more refined understanding of these changes will be a timely and unique challenge to the existing knowledge. We hope the results will help organisational leaders to understand contextual factors’ role in the workers’ perception of decent work and contribute to new research in the field. Therefore, in the present study we examined the effect of the pandemic context on workers’ perception of decent work in a sample of employees of seven Portuguese organisations, considering that the objective work conditions and content remained equal to those employees. In addition, we explore if there were differences across time considering some background variables (age, gender, education, and seniority in the organization and job function).

2Method

3Results

Of the 243 employees who completed the questionnaires at Time 1 and Time 2, 50.2% were of the female gender, 59.2% were aged between 36 and 55 years, 44.9% were married, 39.9% had a secondary school, and 83.5% reported a permanent job contract. Most participants worked in the organisation and the current job function for under five years (see Table 1). During the pandemic, the contract situation in the organisation remained equal for 236 participants (97.1%) and the job function for 224 participants (92.2%). Thirteen employees (5.2%) reported working from home in Time 2.

In Time 1 and Time 2, the decent work dimension that presented the highest score was Fulfilling and Productive Work. The dimension that presented the lowest score was Meaningful Remuneration for the Exercise of Citizenship. Table 2 shows mean differences (and standard deviations) over time in the seven decent work dimensions and the total score.

The results showed a significant multivariate effect of time [Pillai’s Trace = .09, F(7,236) = 3.17; p = .003, η_p² = .09]. Subsequent univariate tests indicated significant increases in all dimensions of decent work, apart from the dimension Opportunities. Results also revealed a significant increase in the overall score of decent work.

Applying separate MANOVAs with time and background variables [age (≤45 years vs. >45); gender (female vs. male), education (with vs. without higher education), seniority in the organisation (≤5 years vs. >5 years) and seniority in the job function (≤5 years vs. >5 years) as the between-subject factors and the different dimensions of decent work as dependent variables, the results showed did not identify any significant interaction effect between time and the background variables age [Pillai’s Trace = .02, F(7,235) = 0.66; p = .702, η_p² = .02], gender [Pillai’s Trace = .04, F(7,235) = 1.25; p = .276, η_p² = .04], education [Pillai’s Trace = .05, F(7,235) = 1.65; p = .122, η_p² = .05], seniority in the organisation [Pillai’s Trace = .04, F(7,235) = 1.38; p = .213, η_p² = .04] and seniority in the job function [Pillai’s Trace = .03, F(7,235) = 0.85; p = .547, η_p² = .03].

When examining the total score of decent work as dependent variable and time and the background variables as independent variables, the results revealed significant interaction effects only for gender, F(1,241) = 4.28; p = .040, η_p² = .02. The interaction effect showed that the increase in decent work from Time 1 to Time 2 was statistically significant for men (p < .001), but not for women (p = .264; see Fig. 1). The interaction effect with age [F(1,241)=0.18; p = .669, η_p² = .001], education [F(1,235) = 1.27; p = .262, η_p² = .01], seniority in the organisation [F(1,241) = 1.82; p = .178, η_p² = .01] and seniority in the job function [F(1,241) = 1.68; p = .196, η_p² = .01] was not significant.

Fig. 1

Mean difference in the total score of decent work by gender and time.

4Discussion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the different dimensions of decent work among Portuguese workers.

Consistent with our hypothesis, our main findings demonstrate a significant improvement in the workers’ perception of decent work from Time 1 to Time 2. This significant increase is only in men. One possible explanation is that during the pandemic, women took on unpaid care for older family members (due to the reduced availability of social services) and children (support for distance learning) [21]. In addition, we verified that the pandemic context had a positive effect on six of seven dimensions of decent work, particularly those related to values, equal opportunities, personal and professional development, work/life balance, improve, and physical and mental health. Opportunities is the only dimension that had no changes from Time 1 to Time 2. Therefore, our hypothesis was partially supported, since Opportunities did not show a statistically significant increase overtime.

A possible explanation for the significant increase in five out of six dimensions of decent work may be grounded on the theories of social comparison [22] and equity [23]. The central explanatory idea of these theories is that individuals assess their work by comparing their jobs with others’ jobs. The societal context six months after the onset of the pandemic was stressful, with many job losses, numerous organisations stopped activity, fear of contamination from a little-known disease, and mobility restraints. However, because our sample includes only Portuguese organisations where the work activity remained the same, and the great majority of employees maintained their jobs in previously existing conditions, it is plausible that their perceptions of decent work may be positively impacted. Furthermore, equity-based reciprocity can influence the perception workers have regarding their work conditions, content and context. Reciprocity was also proposed to explain behaviour in the circular economy context [25].

The social comparison theory argues that people use social reality to adapt their behaviours or opinions and assess themselves through comparison with others [22]. Consequently, by comparing their employment conditions with those who lost their jobs (temporarily or permanently), our workers evaluate their work situation more positively. The equity theory proposes that workers observe what they own in the organisation (e.g., benefits) with their skills, compare themselves with workers who perform the same or similar function, and evaluate through this comparison if they consider it fair [23]. Therefore, considering that our participants may have seen many workers around them as financially fragile, the balance between contribution and remuneration became more favourable to those who maintained their employment conditions. Overall, considering that the work conditions, content, and context remained the same for most of our sample, the workers’ assessment of their decent work significantly increased during the pandemic. That result is not considered a specificity of our sample since equity and reciprocity apply to all human beings. The results can be viewed as a response to the maintenance of the work situation within an overall general decrease in economic and risk conditions. Such a decrease can lead workers to see their same work conditions as better than before since they reframed the evaluation.

Regarding the dimension Fundamental Principles and Values at Work, we observe a significant increase from Time 1 to Time 2. A possible explanation can be that people joined forces to fight the pandemic, as they share the same common goal. This union allowed, on the one hand, the creation of bonds of trust [27, 28] and, on the other, a sense of social identity, having in view its defence against the invisible enemy [24, 29]. This union makes people assess more positively the essential values in the work context (e.g., justice, dignity, freedom, non-discrimination). Thus, when the implemented organisational measures increase the worker’s trust [6], they may perceive work as an expression of their personal values and beliefs [30], having a feeling of justice and dignity, and at the same time, the feeling of safety at work. This feeling of safety also applies to health issues. Indeed, in the present study, the significant increase in the dimension of Health and Safety may be explained by the rapid Portuguese government responses in managing the COVID-19 pandemic [31], which may have predisposed the rapid and appropriate implementation of organisational protective measures. Additionally, the worker’s compliance with health and safety procedures underpins the safety actions and organisational crisis policies [32] by increasing their perception of protection against the additional objective risk.

The significant increase during the pandemic in the dimension Adequate Working Time and Workload may suggest that workers’ flexibilisation of time management during this period was appropriate. A possible explanation is that workers’ perception of their flexibility at work facilitates the work-life balance [33] and helps strengthen trust within the organisations [34]. Despite the restrictions of the coronavirus context, the social isolation in Portugal possibly helped workers rediscover family values and relationships by valuing more unity and time with family [35]. In addition, family closeness increases emotional and psychological well-being among people [36], generating a better reconstruction of their intrinsic resources, which can help to deal with work demands, such as workload [37]. Under the adverse effect of the pandemic on the labour market, our Portuguese organisations ensure their balanced dynamics and work structure. The workers may have perceived that their ability to work at total capacity was not affected. Regardless of the practical job characteristics, workers may derive a meaningful value from their job [38]. The workplace is seen as a community, providing psychological support and a sense of meaning to workers [39], especially in a pandemic context. Additionally, during COVID-19, the social support of the Portuguese Government played a significant role in workers’ resilience and dynamic protective behaviours [40]. Work is a source of motivation and values reflection [30]. As such, Portuguese workers who keep working may perceive more clearly the importance of their work and contribute to the health of the social-economic system and, consequently, of future generations. This may explain the workers’ increased perception of having Fulfilling and Productive Work.

Concerning the significant increase in the dimension of Meaningful Remuneration for the Exercise of Citizenship, a possible explanation may also rely on the theory of social comparison [22], particularly the notion that workers tend to compare their work situation with other workers who are unemployed and lost income. Comparing their job situation with those who experienced a strong diminish in earnings may have positively assessed their work situation. Furthermore, the guarantees of having socially protected employment include remuneration and a social protection system. Indeed, the significant increase in the dimension of Social Protection may be explained by the implementation of a set of exceptional measures by the Portuguese government to support workers and families affected by the pandemic [21]. In this study, the pandemic context did not significantly affect the workers’ assessment of the dimension of Opportunities. These results differ from our expectations, which could be explained by the fact that despite the pandemic context in Portugal affected most sectors of activity, with a substantial reduction in consumption (due to high uncertainty and destruction of jobs) [21], the work activity remained the same in this sample. Thus, the worker’s perception of the availability of alternative job choices was not affected.

Despite the negative changes in the socio-economic context, our subjective measure shows that the positive effect of the social comparison processes [22, 23] and common social identity [24] is stronger than the negative effect of the adverse socio-economic context. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, Portuguese workers may have compared their work situation with the situation of other workers, activating an increase in their subjective perception of the value of their current reality. Although workers are officially at higher risk of infection, if organisational efforts to assure workers’ health and safety are recognised, the result of this recognition outweighs the additional risk derived from the virus. Consequently, workers feel better able to protect themselves than they were before. Additionally, being part of a community that experiences the same threatening pandemic context makes salient a common identity that improves workers’ perception of their work. Our findings also reinforce the idea that a component of decent work depends on the socioeconomic context and must be understood in the framework of universal interdependence regarding social and economic issues. While Human Rights and ILO standards of decent work can be considered linked to universal values, our results reinforce the idea that decent work perception (at least in some dimensions) also depends on the socioeconomic context. This study contributes to the literature by extending the research of the interdependence between events that affect the entire population and their different impacts on decent work. As the decent work concept is evolving [41], the assessment made by workers regarding their decent work in a pandemic context brings new knowledge that allows the reinterpretation of the decent work dimensions.

As with all research, this study has limitations that should be considered. First, despite decent work is a global concern, as underlined within the SDG, the specificities of each socio-political and economic country make the comparison between different cultures problematic. For example, while in some countries labour legislation protects and guarantees decent work conditions, in other countries, they are poorly institutionalised [13]. As such, the interpretation of our findings should be done with caution. Second, using an intentional sample of organisations adhering to a change process guided by values, in which almost all workers maintained the same job conditions, limits the findings’ generalizability. Future studies should verify to what extent similar or different results would be obtained with diverse samples in various national contexts. Third, the macro contextual aspects of the pandemic were expected to influence the results more than they did. In future studies it would be valuable to address workers from different sectors of activity as they could express different perceptions. Fourth, although our sample consisted of participants identified as full-time workers, the DWQ covers all employment relationships. Therefore, future studies must consider the diversity of employment situations, both formal and informal work. This study took place in a unique historical moment, and, as such, the possibility of replication is nil. Notwithstanding the preceding limitation, our findings deepen our understanding of this topic by underlining that in adverse moments, the decent work concept may be the key to enabling recovery from and building resilience to crises [3, 42].

5Conclusion

The pandemic is a challenge that mobilises workers to find resources to cope with the stressor context since unexpected changes occurred. Workers seem to reframe how they see their work’s conditions, context and content. The positive effect on workers’ perception of decent work in Portuguese organisations where the work activity remained equal highlights the importance of the rapid government response to manage the pandemic through a robust national plan for crisis management. This reinforces the perspective that the quick and effective government action was positive [43]. The COVID-19 context demonstrates the need for design policies to rapidly allocate resources to the most affected organisations to ensure workers’ jobs [3]. This study suggests the need for further research to analyse the level of access to state-controlled resources and financing to the activity sectors affected by the pandemic. Furthermore, after approving the government’s financial support, politicians must control if organisations maintain the commitments to create jobs and prevent workers’ health risks.