Precarious employment, health, and quality of life: Context, analysis, and impacts

© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Ronald J. Burke and Cary L. Cooper. Precarious employment is both a powerful social determinant of health, well-being, and quality of life, and also a historical phenomenon linked to the power relationships between employers and employees. Employment precariousness refers to employment insecurity, individualized bargaining relations between workers and employers, low wages, limited workplace rights and social protection, and powerlessness to exercise workplace rights. In this chapter we describe the expansion of neoliberal transformations of the labour market that fostered the emergence of precarious employment. Second, we examine concepts, models, and instruments to define precarious employment and assess its prevalence. Finally, we identify the unequal impacts of employment precarisation on social, economic, and family precariousness, and, eventually, its impact on workers' health and quality of life. The chapter concludes reviewing some of the most important research and policy challenges to be addressed to reduce labour market employment precariousness and its effects on ill-health and health inequalities.