Employmentweb_low

EMploYMEnt, work, And hEAlth inEquAlitiEs - a global perspective
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3.1. METHODS AND STRATEGIES
In this book our aim is to use methods that are suitable for the
reality upon which we focus, which is complex and dynamic. In order
to avoid reductive assumptions, we make a conscious effort to take
a global perspective, be accurate, and avoid narrow perspectives
based on the employment standards typically used in wealthy
Western societies.
The challenge of studying a neglected global reality
The dominant trend in today's occupational health research is to
focus on how employment and work conditions influence health. Our
study, however, delves deeper into the strikingly under-studied links
between the conditions of employment and work in relation to
health inequalities. A reflection upon current research uncovers
three important shortcomings.
First, only a very small minority of existing studies include data from
middle income and poor countries. This limitation is worrisome, as there
are important differences in working and employment conditions
between wealthy and middle or poor income nations. The examples are
many. While non-standard forms of employment have increased in the
past decades in wealthy countries, poor countries have been
characterised by a large variety of hidden or less well-known, informal
forms of employment as well as by extremely hazardous and unhealthy
employment relations including bonded labour, child labour, and forced
sex work. At the same time as employment in agriculture has sharply
declined in wealthy countries, in mid- and low-income countries a large
proportion of workers still engage in agricultural employment, a labour
sector where the inherent threats to health are very different from those
that characterise the industrial and service sectors of wealthy countries.
Classical welfare state measures, including universal public health
policies, have rarely taken hold in most poor countries. Finally, the links
between employment and health benefits must take into account the
development of local health systems, which differ amongst mid and lowincome
countries. In some, where precarious and informal forms of
employment dominate, workers do not necessarily receive access to
health services as part of employment benefits. On the other hand, in
some mid to low-income countries (such as Sri Lanka, Cuba, Brazil,
Chile, and Costa Rica), everybody enjoys universal access to health care
regardless of their employment status.
Second, investigations into the interaction between health and
employment and working conditions do not focus on the impact of
health inequalities and their underlying causes.
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