Health Issues of Digital Factory Workers(Apr. 024)

Hyeong-seop Yoo, Communications Committee Member, Occupational and Environmental Medicine Specialist

Translated by Michelle Jang

Reviewed by Joe DiGangi

Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health

As digital factories expand, more workers are placed under the control of capital, regardless of time and space. As workers’ output and efficiency can be calculated more precisely, surveillance of labor processes and performance increases. As heterogeneous workers are distributed across a much wider space and are segmented from each other, labor markets become more flexible and workers face low wages and job insecurity. Digital factories and their workers are hidden from view, making it difficult to understand their labor environment or health conditions. Research on the health conditions of workers working in digital factories is still scarce worldwide. Based on the research that has been published so far, it is important to discuss the health issues of logistics center workers, platform workers, crowd workers, and content moderators.

High labor intensity in logistics centers

According to an evaluation of the working environment and health of workers at Coupang’s logistics center conducted by the Korea Institute of Labor Safety and Health in 2021, approximately 73% of the respondents said they were working at a brisk walking pace, and approximately 28% said they felt the intensity of their work at the level of a 100-meter run. This result was consistent regardless of whether they were contract workers, daily workers, or center workers. Fifty-one percent of the respondents said they were always physically tired after work, and 32% said they were always mentally tired. Approximately 49% of the respondents said they had the experience of going to work while sick (presenteeism) in the past year.

As a result of this high labor intensity, about 70% of the respondents complained of physical symptoms such as muscle pain in the upper and lower limbs and fatigue throughout the body, which is 3-4 times higher than that of general workers. Their mental health was also vulnerable. Approximately 24% of the workers experienced depression, and 18% and 2.5% had suicidal thoughts and plans, respectively, which is more than twice as high as that of the general population. The study participants cited job stresses such as lack of break time and space, understaffing, performance pressure, bullying in the workplace and human rights violations as contributing to their poor health.

Platform companies’ control of work and platform workers’ health

In 2022, St. Mary’s Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea conducted a survey on the working environment and health of 1,000 platform workers nationwide, focusing on food delivery workers, proxy drivers, and housekeepers. The average monthly income for food delivery workers was around 2 million won (approximately USD$1400), although they usually worked 5 days a week or more. Housekeepers’ average monthly income was particularly low at 1.5 million won (approximately USD$1000). Only 13% of food delivery workers and delivery drivers, and 5.5% of housekeepers were subscribed to the four major social insurances (Health Insurance, National Pension, Unemployment Insurance, and Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance). 

Food delivery workers and proxy drivers had many concerns about their ratings from consumers, and experienced high levels of violence. They were also frequently exposed to harmful factors such as vibration, noise, dust, and high or low temperatures. Housekeepers often experienced abusive language from consumers and were frequently exposed to chemicals. They performed repetitive tasks and handled heavy objects. All platform workers who participated in the study were found to have high levels of job stress, such as lack of sufficient rest, time pressure, and lack of autonomy.

Housekeepers showed musculoskeletal symptoms 2-5 times higher than general workers, and proxy drivers and food delivery workers had 1.5-2.2 times higher rates of headaches and eye fatigue. Among all platform workers, overall fatigue was observed 1.5-2.1 times higher than the general population, and depressive symptoms were 1.9-4.2 times higher. In addition to the stress caused by the nature of the work itself, there was also a high level of stress caused by the control of platform companies, where customer ratings or performance affect work assignments.

Crowd workers, the paradox of flexible working hours

Crowdwork refers to a method of assigning work to a large number of anonymous workers through a digitalized platform. Workers can decide when, where, and how much they will work, but on the other hand, their income is unstable due to irregular work, and it is uncertain whether they will be given enough work to maintain their income. They are also excluded from social insurance. Crowdworkers are very diverse. About half of the crowdworkers do it as a side job to earn extra income, but in developing countries, the proportion of those who do it as their main job is higher.

In 2021, there was an investigation about the physical health of 748 crowdworkers from four types of crowdwork platforms in Germany: 

▲ simple tasks such as surveys and data organization ▲ content creation such as subtitles and translation ▲ micro sensing such as product photography, checking geographical data and business hours ▲ programming 

Despite their relatively young age, all types of workers were found to have worse overall physical health indicators, including problems with their digestive system, musculoskeletal system, headache, sleep, and fatigue, compared to general German workers. Crowdworkers who work long hours and have a high work-life imbalance due to job stress showed worse physical health. This suggests that instability due to short contracts and excessive immersion in work to maintain employment are contributing factors to poorer health.

The mental health of content moderators without protection systems

Content moderators are workers who select and delete content that is deemed harmful or culturally unacceptable among videos or posts uploaded to the internet. Continuous exposure to hate speech or violent content can have a negative impact on psychological health. This can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or burnout. It can also lead to psychological reactions such as compassion fatigue, which can change the way someone views the themselves or the world and weaken compassion or empathy for painful realities as they persist.

A study analyzing the mental health of 213 content moderators in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa in 2024 found that as the frequency of exposure to stressful content at work increased, mental health indicators worsened. However, regardless of frequency, only 6.9% of respondents had mental health indicators in the normal range. About 35% scored in the moderate or severe range.

In a study that investigated the labor conditions and risks of domestic content moderators in 2023, it was found that since content was constantly allocated by the system, break times were strictly calculated, and the work intensity was so high that they had to ask colleagues around them to do their work when they wanted to go to the toilet or take a break. It was an environment that required psychological toughness because there was always a mental risk of being continuously shocked by content scenes during daily life or becoming insensitive to them, but there was no protection system at all.

The voices of digital factory workers need to be heard

Digital factory workers are greatly affected by the physical characteristics of their work, as well as their irregular, controlled, and flexible work environment. Their physical and mental health is vulnerable compared to that of general workers. There is no protection system in place for these workers and their number is increasing. This work is still so hidden and fragmented that it is difficult to investigate and study the health of these workers. It is time to think about how to enable these workers to speak out about work environments that undermine their right to health.

References

Coupang Logistics Center Workers’ Work Environment Health Level Evaluation

National Assembly Discussion Materials. 2021.09.30.

Yoo H, Song JH, Kim HR. Association between presenteeism and mental health among logistic center workers. Ann Occup Environ Med. 2022 Nov;34(1):e39. https://doi.org/10.35371/ aoem.2022.34.e39

Kang Mo-yeol et al. Monitoring the health status of platform workers. Catholic University Industry-Academic Cooperation Group. 2022. 2022-Industrial Safety and Health Research Institute-804

Yoo H et al., Investigation of Working Conditions and Health Status in PlatformWorkers in the Republic of Korea, Safety and Health at Work, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2024.01.002  

Schlicher KD, Schulte J, Reimann M and Maier GW (2021) Flexible, Self-Determined… and Unhealthy? An Empirical Study on Somatic Health Among Crowdworkers. Front. Psychol. 12:724966. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.724966 

Ruth Spence, Antonia Bifulco, Paula Bradbury, Elena Martellozzo, and Jeffrey DeMarco. Content Moderator Mental Health, Secondary Trauma, and Well-being: A Cross-Sectional Study.Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Feb. 2024.149-155.http://doi. org/10.1089/cyber.2023.0298  

Noh Ga-bin, Lee So-min. The reality and risks of domestic content moderator labor. KILSH& Gonggam 2023 reader research contest presentation materials