ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that precarious employment is a significant but usually overlooked contributor to levels of distress. Excessive levels of stress lead to significant personal, employer and taxpayer-funded economic losses. While many cases of stress are closely correlated with lack of control and fatigue following shift work, others follow occupational violence incidents, work overload, job insecurity, and precarious employment. The proportion of the working population suffering ill-health as a result of excessive stress is almost certainly growing. Loss of control has been identified as a key determinant of stress, although all the causal links have not been fully enumerated. Arguably, a factor of central importance is economic stress. The chapter argues that evidence from across a range of industry sectors clearly indicates that precariously employed workers carry a disproportionately high burden of injury, ill-health, and economically induced stress.
