Employmentweb_low

employment relations and health inequalities: a conceptual and empirical overvieW
However, this behaviour changes the labour market because
increasingly flexible labour means that protections formerly offered
by labour laws and union agreements no longer apply. Flexible
workers are not typically on a contract, nor do they form part of a
union, so their income and job security are left unguarded.
These types of markets are typically referred to as "non-standard
employment." However, this term is limited in capturing the reality
of new labour markets for three main reasons. First, these forms of
employment lack sufficient conceptual and theoretical development
by scholars. Second, non-standard employment covers a range of
poorly defined categories, including work arrangements that do not
necessarily imply employment conditions that are worse than those
of permanent jobs. and third, since these categories are not very
informative, they are easily confused with possible explanations and
mechanisms linking work arrangements and health outcomes.
Together, these three limitations suggest that we must move
beyond a simple comparison to full-year, permanent employment. If
we are to make any progress in understanding employment
conditions that do not fit well into the typical labour market models
of western capitalism, we must seek conceptual alternatives that
are based on the social structure of work organisation, such as the
sociological concept of "precarious employment."
Precarious employment, as defined above, can be characterised
along six main dimensions (amable, 2006).
1. Employment instability: this refers to the type and duration of
a working contract, indicating that short term contracts
contribute to greater employment precariousness.
2. Empowerment: this refers to the way the worker's employment
conditions are negotiated, whether it is individually or with the
support of a trade union by means of collective negotiations.
3. Vulnerability: this refers to the set of explicit or implicit social
power relations in the workplace or the capacity to resist the
discipline that the wage relation imposes (intimidation, threats of
being fired, and discrimination).
4. Low wages: individuals are classified according to their wages
and the sufficiency of these to cover regular and unexpected
living expenses, indicating their economic dependence on
employment and their potential material deprivation.
5. workers' rights: these include severance pay, unemployment
compensation and paid vacations, among other workers' rights that may
modify or mitigate the other aspects of employment precariousness.
6. Capacity to exercise rights: this refers to the degree to which
workers feel powerless in exercising their legal rights.
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