{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,26]],"date-time":"2026-10-26T11:20:07Z","timestamp":1793013607547,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,13]],"date-time":"2021-05-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1620864000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Research Programme of Latvia within the project \u201cLife with COVID-19: Evaluation of overcoming the coronavirus crisis in Latvia and recommendations for societal resilience in the future\u201d","award":["VPP-COVID-2020\/1-0013"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["VPP-COVID-2020\/1-0013"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Several individual factors like older age and chronic diseases have been linked with more severe symptoms often leading to hospitalization and higher mortality from COVID-19. Part of adults with such factors is still active in the workforce. The objective of the study was to identify measures taken by the employer to protect them and to investigate reasons for low protection of vulnerable workers during the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Answers from 1000 workers collected via web-survey and results from 10 focus group discussions were analyzed. Only 31.5% of respondents mentioned that their employer had identified existing vulnerable groups and offered specific measures to protect them. Moving vulnerable workers away from the workplace was the most frequent measure (e.g., transfer to the back-office without contact with clients, telework, paid vacations, paid downtime). Most employers do not see elderly workers and workers with chronic diseases as risk groups, thus are not specifically protecting them. Instead, several employers have included workers critical for business continuity in their risk group. Others had not taken measures because of the lack of information due to general data protection regulation. Poor communication and lack of interest of employers to ask their workers if they need special protection is the topic to be addressed at the national level.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph18105188","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,13]],"date-time":"2021-05-13T11:10:06Z","timestamp":1620904206000},"page":"5188","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Reasons for Low Protection of Vulnerable Workers from COVID-19\u2014Results from the Quantitative and Qualitative Study on Working Life in Latvia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3978-6963","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Linda","family":"Matis\u0101ne","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Linda","family":"Paegle","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maija","family":"Egl\u012bte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4947-3904","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"L\u0101sma","family":"Ak\u016blova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Asnate Anna","family":"Linde","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5391-1583","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivars","family":"Vanadzi\u0146\u0161","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, R\u012bga Stradi\u0146\u0161 University, Dzirciema 16, LV-1007 Riga, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Iveta","family":"Mietule","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute for Business and Social Processes, R\u0113zekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrivosanas Alley 115, LV-4601 Rezekne, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Je\u013cena","family":"Lonska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute for Business and Social Processes, R\u0113zekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrivosanas Alley 115, LV-4601 Rezekne, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lien\u012bte","family":"Litavniece","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute for Business and Social Processes, R\u0113zekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrivosanas Alley 115, LV-4601 Rezekne, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9762-3874","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Iluta","family":"Arbid\u0101ne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Institute for Business and Social Processes, R\u0113zekne Academy of Technologies, Atbrivosanas Alley 115, LV-4601 Rezekne, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sarm\u012bte","family":"Rozent\u0101le","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Cesu Street 4, LV-4201 Valmiera, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ieva","family":"Gr\u012bnt\u0101le","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, Cesu Street 4, LV-4201 Valmiera, Latvia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jclinepi.2020.06.004","article-title":"A Framework for Identifying and Mitigating the Equity Harms of COVID-19 Policy Interventions","volume":"128","author":"Glover","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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