TY - JOUR T1 - Does organisational justice protect from sickness absence following a major life event? A Finnish public sector study JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 470 LP - 472 DO - 10.1136/jech.2008.084301 VL - 64 IS - 5 AU - M Elovainio AU - M Kivimäki AU - A Linna AU - J Brockner AU - K van den Bos AU - J Greenberg AU - J Pentti AU - M Virtanen AU - J Vahtera Y1 - 2010/05/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/64/5/470.abstract N2 - Background It has been shown that fairness perceptions have a strong impact on health, especially under conditions of great work stress. The aim of this study was to extend previous research in studying whether working in high justice workplace would protect from health effects following environmental stressors outside work.Methods Using a prospective longitudinal design, the relationships between organisational justice and sickness-related absences both before and after a major life event among 25 459 public sector employees working in 2551 work units were studied. Sickness absences covered the period from 36 months before the event until 30 months after the event.Results The increase in sickness absences after the event was larger and stayed at a higher level even 30 months after the event, among those who perceived the management practices in their work unit to be relatively unfair. Similar patterns were found for each of the distributive, procedural and interactional dimensions of organisational justice.Conclusions Fair organisational and managerial procedures may buffer the negative health effects of psychosocial health risks outside work. ER -