ABSTRACT
An early casualty of the privatization process was the Property Services Agency, a civil service department, sold in its entirety to the private sector. This chapter describes the effects of this process on the health and well-being of the white-collar workers employed by that organization. The emphasis is on the job insecurity generated by the process, and explanations for observed effects on health and well-being are sought in changes in other characteristics of the psychosocial work environment, health-related behaviors and individual differences. Causation always remains a matter of belief or judgment based on all the available evidence. However, it is rare for the evidence on causation to be as unequivocal as that for cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Thus, there comes a point at which it becomes prudent to act on the premise that a causal relationship exists, rather than await further evidence.
