Maternity leave policy has changed a few times over the last 20 years in Brazil. This dissertation investigates how a ceiling imposed on the maternity leave benefit paid by Brazilian Social Security in Dec, 1998 and its temporary suspension in May, 1999 affected females' employment and earnings using difference-in-difference method. We apply the difference-in-difference method to examine whether the changes in maternity leave policy negatively affected females in the labor market. Our analysis uses four treatment groups: 1) young females, aged 20 to 40 years; 2) young females working in the private sector; 3) older females, aged 41 to 65 years, working in the private sector; and 4) young females with infants. Young females were selected based on the fact that they have a higher probability of giving birth compared to older females and, consequently, using the maternity leave benefit. The second and third groups were supposedly the groups directly reached by these changes in maternity leave policy since earnings and employment in the public sector should not be based on an individual's gender and therefore discrimination may be absent or less prevalent there than in the private sector. We also include young females with infants as a treatment group since employers may use this information to infer the probability of a female having another child. We also propose four control groups: 1) older females aged between 41 and 65 years; 2) young females working in the public sector; 3) older females working in the public sector; and 4) young males. Overall, our results show that the limit imposed on maternity leave benefits paid by Social Security and the transfer of the responsibility of paying the remaining wages to employers negatively affected females' hourly wages, and this negative effect seems to have persisted even while the limit was temporarily suspended. Furthermore, young females were more affected by the change in policy than older females. These results lead us to think that these changes in maternity leave policy may have slowed the convergence of females' wages toward males' wages or "forced" females to swim upstream during the period from May 1999 to March 2003.

In South African law, childbearing is not a right for working women. A few mother takes maternity leave at her own risk. She has no legal guarantee of getting her job back. With high unemployment she may not find another job at all.

Sickness-absence (SA) is a serious financial burden to UK industry totalling £10-12 billion in 1999 the equivalent of £434 and 7.8 days lost per worker. A major change in the reporting of SA occurred on 14 June 1982 with the introduction of self certification. Up to then all episodes had to be certified by a general practitioner. Since then, events that lasted for seven calendar or less have not required a GP's certificate and are 'self-certified'. A SA episode consists of the date the individual went off sick, the duration of the episode and a medical diagnosis given by either a GP or self diagnosis. A common approach to the analysis of SA data is to model the number of times an individual went off sick during a period of follow up via Poisson regression. Some studies on SA have examined the duration of SA, though most concentrated on the probability of going off sick. This thesis uses an intensity based approach to model the joint probability that a person goes off sick with a specific disease and has a specific duration of absence (the 'joint analysis'). A Bayesian hierarchical model, based on the conditional proportional hazards model, is formulated for the joint analysis and sampled using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Posterior expectations and 90% credible intervals are presented as summaries of the marginal posterior distributions of the parameters of the joint analysis. Trace plots of the log-joint posterior distribution are given to assess convergence of the MCMC sampler.

Thesis (doctoral)--Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1976. / Title from title page screen, viewed Dec. 9, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Elwood Egelston (chair), Mary Ferrell, Eugene Fitzpatrick, Clayton Thomas, Gene Watson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-155) and abstract. Also available in print.

This study was designed to determine the utilization of the sick leave program of a large city school system by teachers according to sex, age, experience, tenure, training, residence, and teaching assignment, and to determine if current sick leave allowances were adequate.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

A synopsis of the southern African members of the genera Dicoma Cass. and Macledium Cass. (family Asteraceae, subfamily Cichorioidiae, tribe Mutiseae, subtribe Gochnatiinae) is presented. The most recent monograph of Dicoma was done by Wilson (1923). It included 34 species, of which 17 are southern African, The southern African species were last treated by Harvey (1865). Traditionally Dicoma included 50 to 65 species, of which 23 occur in southern Africa. Ortiz (2001) reinstated the genus Macledium Cass., which was first described by Cassini (1825), following a phylogenetic study of Dicoma and related genera (Ortiz, 2000). The species previously belonging to sections Macledium and Pterocoma of the genus Dicoma have been transferred to the genus Macledium by Ortiz (2001). In this study, characters relating to morphology of the involucral bracts, disc floret cuticle ornamentation, type of pappus and the type of achenes are used to distinguish the two genera. Differences were found between the grassland species and Cape species of Macledium. Type of florets in the capitulum and pappus morphology are used to distinguish sections within Dicoma sensu stricto. Characters such as habit, leaf morphology, shape and size of the capitulum, involucral bracts vestiture and details of the pappus could be reliably used to distinguish species. The genus Dicoma now consists of about 35 species, of which16 species and two subspecies occur in southern Africa. Four informal groups of D. anomala subsp. anomala, two of D. anomala subsp. gerrardii as well as two of D. montana are recognized to accommodate infraspecific variation. Macledium comprises about 20 species, of which seven species, three subspecies and three varieties occurr in this region. M. spinosum is divided into two informal forms and a new combination, Macledium zeyheri subsp. zeyheri var. thyrsiflorum, is made. In view of the above, a comprehensive taxonomic revision of all the southern African taxa was done. Morphological and anatomical data were used to investigate relationships among the species of Dicoma sensu stricto, using the genus Macledium as the sister group. A phylogenetic analysis of Macledium was also done to investigate relationships between the grassland species and the Cape species. The taxonomic treatment includes the nomenclature, synonymy, diagnostic characters, uses, common names (where possible) and geographical distribution for all southern African taxa belonging to the two genera. Keys to the genera, sections, species and subspecies are provided and the diagnostic characters of the two genera are illustrated. / Prof. B.E. van Wyk

The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between salutogenic functioning and sick leave. Occupational stress as a metatheoretical concept was investigated. Work is stressful, but some people cope better with this stress than others. A study of salutogenic functioning as a way of coping with occupational stress was done. Salutogenic constructs, as moderator variables of the coping abilities were investigated in relation to sick leave days. This research used a sample of 73 employees in PTM. The relationship between the employees' biographical variables, salutogenic functioning and sick leave was determined, and no relations between them were found, but a significant correlation between gender and potency was found. The results indicated no relation between PTM employees' salutogenic functioning and sick leave. Furthermore, biographical variables didn't predict sick leave. The employees displayed moderate to strong salutogenic functioning in terms of their ability to cope and to stay well. / M.A.(Industrial Psychology)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-212).