Workplace justice and health status of employees: A cross-sectional study from Taiwan

Background: Recent studies have shown that low justice at work is detrimental to employees' health. However, few studies have examined the distribution of workplace justice across a wide spectrum of employees, and little investigation has been conducted to examine its associations with multiple health outcomes. Methods: 9563 male and 7804 female employees aged between 25 and 65 years old were studied, who were from a national survey conducted in 2010 in Taiwan. A validated scale for workplace justice (7 items) was included in the questionnaire. Also included were items for job control, psychosocial job demands, physical job demands, job security and other work characteristics. Various health conditions were evaluated, including self-reported health stats, mental health status, sleeping problems, musculoskeletal disorders and other disease symptoms.

Results: Low workplace justice was more common among employees in larger enterprises, and in employees whose jobs were characterized as higher demands, lower control and lower job security. Findings from the multivariate logistic regression models indicated that employees with workplace justice levels in the lowest tertile had a significantly increased risk of poor self-rated health (odd ratios of 3.0 for men and 1.9 for women) when compared to those with workplace justice in the highest tertile. Similar associations were evident for all the health outcomes examined in this study. Conclusion: Lower perception of justice at work appeared to be an important risk factor for poor health. The underlying mechanisms deserve further research.