Worker Adaptation and Workplace Accommodations after the Onset of an Illness

Workers who become work-incapacitated may either change employer or stay with their current employer in an accommodated job. This paper studies the effect of these two adaptation strategies on long-term sick-listed workers’ employment durations. We use combined survey and register data consisting of 809 workers who were continuously sick-listed more than eight weeks. Using a joint proportional mixed hazard rate model, we simultaneously estimate the duration until returning to work (in an accommodated job with the current employer, in a non-accommodated job with the current employer, or in a job with a new employer) and the duration of the subsequent employment. To identify the effect of accommodations and job change, we use the timing-of-event approach, i.e. assuming that the sick-listed workers cannot anticipate the exact timing of job accommodations and change of employer. We find that workplace accommodations increase subsequent employment durations with the current employer. We also find that sick-listed workers returning to work with a new employer have significantly shorter employment durations than workers returning to work with the current employer in an accommodated job.