The relation between flexible employment and health is a recent public health research question.¹ After a long period of progressive labour market regulatory policymaking, particularly in European Union countries, where the influence of trade unions is strong, employers now argue for a supply of a full time workforce that will allow them to compete in a global market characterised by continuous technical and organisational change. In this global environment, and from a purely economic perspective, flexible employment has become considered as a necessary condition to increase productivity, and is a characteristic common to both developed and developing countries.

Recent research, however, has begun to suggest that flexible employment may have adverse affects on the health of workers. For instance, mortality is significantly higher …