Precarious employment and health of workers

Introduction
Part-time workers, contracted (term-limited) workers, and dispatched workers are collectively called precarious (non-regular) workers and currently in Japan, more than one third of the workers are with precarious employment. There has been a study demonstrating very high and still increasing incidence of occupational accidents among precarious workers. From the Comprehensive Survey of Living Condition of the People on Health and Welfare, we found that mental health problems were more prevalent among precarious workers than regular workers. In order to understand the mechanism of the precarious employment to be associated with ill health of workers, we analyzed the health and safety issues as well as economic status of workers using several governmental surveys.

Methods
To know the basic status of precarious workers, the Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2009 was used. For the opportunity to receive preventive services by employment status, a result of Comprehensive Factual Investigation on the Diversification of Employment 2003 was used. Also, the Report on Workers Compensation for the Occupational Accident and Diseases with Cardio/Cerebral and Mental Diseases 2010 was used to see the difference after the accident.

Results
The average wage for male and female precarious workers to that of regular male workers were 63% and 42 %, respectively and this may lead to poor health with high poverty rate. Precarious workers were found to have less opportunity for health and safety education and this may make them vulnerable to preventable accident or occupational diseases. Even after stroke and cardio-cerebral event related to overwork, precarious workers were less likely to be compensated.

Discussion
At the whole process for the occurrence of the occupational accidents and diseases, precarious employment was found to affect adversely. Inequality and discrimination in the workplace by precarious employment may prevent workers unite to protect their health.