Although the relationship between job characteristics, work–home interference (WHI) and work‐related well‐being has been researched in Western societies, this relationship has not often been tested in non‐Western societies such as South Africa and among low‐wage non‐professional workers, like construction workers. The aim of this study was to test the mediating effect of negative and positive WHI in the relationship between job characteristics (job demands and job resources) and work‐related well‐being (burnout and work engagement) in a sample of 528 employees in the construction industry in South Africa. Structural equation modelling showed that, as expected, job demands and job resources were partially related to burnout, both directly and indirectly through negative WHI. Similarly, job resources were partially related to work engagement, both directly and indirectly, through positive WHI. It can be concluded that these results extend previous research by showing that the relationships between job characteristics, WHI and well‐being hold true for low‐wage workers in a non‐Western society. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The objectives of this study were to determine the psychometric properties of a new work-home interaction instrument, the Survey Work-home Interaction-Nijmegen (SWING) in the South African context, and to determine the prevalence of work-home interaction. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among employees in the earthmoving equipment industry (N = 528). Structural equation modelling showed that a four-factor model fitted the data best. This factor structure was equivalent across important subgroups. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients showed that all four factors were reliably measured. Paired-samples t-tests revealed that negative interference from work to home is more prevalent than negative interference from home to work, but that positive interference from the home domain is more prevalent than positive interference from the work domain