Precarious employment and mental health in salaried workers in Spain: A new scale of employment precariousness

Over the last three decades employment conditions of salaried workers have experienced major changes in industrialized countries. With labour market flexibility, job insecurity has grown while workers' benefits and collective control over working conditions have declined.

The purpose of this study is to describe the association between employment precariousness and self-reported mental health among workers in Spain.

The new Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) is a multidimensional scale encompassing six domains: employment instability; collective agreement coverage; vulnerability; wages; rights; and powerlessness to exercise rights.

Data come from the population-based Psychosocial Factors Survey 2004-05 carried out by the Barcelona Union Institute of Work, Environment and Health (ISTAS). Workers with temporary and permanent contracts were included (n=6.968). Mental health was measured with the generic health questionnaire SF-36.

Quartiles of employment precariousness (reference: 1st quartile), and eight strata according to sex, age (≤30>), and occupation, were created. Poor mental health was defined as a score below the 25th percentile of the Spanish reference for the individual's sex and age.

A marked gradient in mental health was observed within all strata. Age adjusted odds ratios reveal a significantly (p<0.005) higher probability of suffering from poor health among workers in the 4th quartile of employment precariousness across all strata, ranging from 1.9 (1.3-2.8) (manual women >30) to 6.3 (3.8-10.6) (non-manual women ≤30).

To our knowledge, this is the first European study to use an integrated measure of employment precariousness to assess its association to self-reported health. Our results highlight the public health relevance of precarious employment.