Working Conditions in the Context of Global Value Chains and Routinisation: An Example of Polish Workers

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the linkages between global production fragmentation, routinisation and the well-being of workers in Poland. In particular, the focus is placed on the selected measures of working conditions, such as the social environment, work intensity, and working time quality to examine their dependence on involvement in international trade and the routinisation level. We merge individual data describing the working conditions and well-being of workers with sector-level data containing information on involvement in global production processes and occupational data on the job routinisation level. The findings reveal a moderate association between working conditions and global value chain (GVC) involvement among Polish workers. In more GVC-dependent sectors, workers receive lower remuneration on average. The relationship between GVC and other working conditions is significant, but the economic significance is marginal. Similarly, the routinisation of work is negatively correlated with wages and working conditions (except work intensity). The main contribution of this study is its multidimensional approach to analysing working conditions, which significantly expands existing evidence in the literature.