Monroe Berkowitz

Health and Labor Force Participation

Models are estimated to analyze the influence of health on labor force participation. It was found that the participation of blacks is more likely to be reduced by health factors than that of whites; that the primary importance of education derives from its association with skills and ability rather than health. Public transfer payments influence but do not control participation of nonseverely disabled workers. Including health measures can increase the explanatory power of labor force models. Better information on health of workers would allow separation of the cost of disability into those reducible through delivery of health care and those more appropriately dealt with through labor market policies.

Illness Behaviour and Disability

The recent crisis in the administration of the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program in the United States highlights the failure of social scientists in general and economists in particular to influence the development of public policy in this crucial area. Perhaps the DI experience is only one of many illustrations of how difficult it is to have complex human conditions responded to by welfare decisions which are attuned to individual circumstances yet are explicit, predictable, challengeable and politically palatable (Bolderson, 1985).

Persons with Disabilities at Work The Atlantic City Gaming Casinos

This article supplements the current literature on employment of persons with disabilities. Our data are derived from a survey of employees with disabilities at the place of their employment. More than three-quarters of the employees of the 12 gaming casinos in Atlantic City responded to a survey that inquired about their demographic characteristics, their medical conditions, and whether they were limited in the amount or kind of work they could do at their jobs. More than 8% of the employees were classified as disabled, twice the number of those with disabilities in the labor force in the state. Findings from the survey indicate that casinos differ in their employment of persons with disabilities. Some of these differences can be attributed to observable differences among the casinos in the composition of their work force (including age, gender, and education), whereas other differences can be attributed to differences in the composition of casino jobs. After incorporating such observed differences, remaining differences in employment of persons with disabilities are attributed to formal and informal disability employment policies and practices. On the basis of estimates of the magnitude of these policy differences, we determine that if all casinos could be brought to the level of the best casino, 1,223 more persons with disabilities would be employed in the industry. Further research is discussed to determine reasons for the differences among casinos.

Social Workers in Indian Industry

N CONTRAST to the situation in the United States, a fair proportion of the graduates of social work schools in India seek employment in industrial establishments. In fact, Indian law requires every factory employing five hundred or more workers to have a labor welfare officer, who must be a graduate of an approved institution. The labor welfare officer is paid by the company, but his duties, qualifications, tenure, and, in some instances, his salary are specified by rules laid down by the various states. To the Western observer, this requirement seems peculiar, as it is not easy to find comparable situations in other countries. More confusing, however, is the rather strange assortment of duties specified for the labor welfare officer. Some of these duties might well be classified as social work duties, but others, as will be seen below, hardly come within this category. The basic purpose of this article is to examine the role and function of the labor welfare officer in Indian industry with a view toward evaluating his effectiveness. During the academic year 1959-60 the author was engaged in a survey of the labor welfare officers in and around Ahmedabad, a prominent textile center. Labor welfare officers, their supervisors, and some of the workers affected by the various programs were interviewed. Some interviews on a less extensive scale were conducted in Bombay, Calcutta, and other industrial cities. The survey, part of a wider study of the personnel function in Indian industry, was supported in part by funds supplied by the University School of Social Sciences of Gujarat University, where the author served as Visiting Fulbright Professor.1