[Basic questionnaire and methodological criteria for Surveys on Working Conditions, Employment, and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean].

This article aimed to present a basic questionnaire and minimum methodological criteria for consideration in future Surveys on Working Conditions, Employment, and Health in Latin America and the Caribbean. A virtual and face-to-face consensus process was conducted with participation by a group of international experts who used the surveys available up until 2013 as the point of departure for defining the proposal. The final questionnaire included 77 questions grouped in six dimensions: socio-demographic characteristics of workers and companies; employment conditions; working conditions; health status; resources and preventive activities; and family characteristics.

Employment precariousness and poor mental health: evidence from Spain on a new social determinant of health.

Background: Evidence on the health-damaging effects of precarious employment is limited by the use of one-dimensional approaches focused on employment instability. This study assesses the association between precarious employment and poor mental health using the multidimensional Employment Precariousness Scale.

Methods: Cross-sectional study of 5679 temporary and permanent workers from the population-based Psychosocial Factors Survey was carried out in 2004-2005 in Spain.

Employment precariousness in Spain: prevalence, social distribution, and population-attributable risk percent of poor mental health.

As a consequence of labor market flexibilization, nonstandard employment has expanded and standard employment has declined. In many cases, these transformations are best described as an evolution toward precarious employment, which is considered a major determinant of health and health inequalities. Using the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES), this study aims to determine the prevalence of precarious employment in the waged and salaried workforce in Spain, to describe its distribution across social groups defined by occupational class, gender, age, and immigrant status, and to estimate the proportion of cases of poor mental health potentially attributable to employment precariousness.

[Incidence of permanent disability in a cohort of social security-affiliated workers (2004-2007)].

Objective: To describe the incidence of permanent disability, both work-related and non-work-related, by several socioeconomic and geographical variables.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of a cohort of 768,454 workers covered by the General Social Security Regimen, followed-up from 2004 to 2007. This study was based on the Continuous Working Life Survey.

The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES): psychometric properties of a new tool for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers.

Background: Despite the fact that labour market flexibility has resulted in an expansion of precarious employment in industrialised countries, to date there is limited empirical evidence concerning its health consequences. The Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) is a newly developed, theory-based, multidimensional questionnaire specifically devised for epidemiological studies among waged and salaried workers.

Objective: To assess the acceptability, reliability and construct validity of EPRES in a sample of waged and salaried workers in Spain.

Methods for the study of employment relations and health inequalities in a global context.

The authors describe the major methods and sources of information used in the EMCONET study for researching global, employment-related health inequalities. A systematic review of the literature provides valuable knowledge for research in this area. However, the limited number of studies, the poor quality of methods used, and a lack of theories or concepts have produced inconsistent results.

Extending a model of precarious employment: A qualitative study of immigrant workers in Spain.

Background: Since the 1980s, changes in the labor market have modified power relations between capital and labor, leading to greater levels of precarious employment among workers. Globalization has led to a growth in migration, as people leave their countries in search of work. We aimed to describe the dimensions of precarious employment for immigrant workers in Spain.

Is precarious employment more damaging to women's health than men's?

Current global economic trends in both developed and developing countries, including unregulated labor markets, trade competition and technological change, have greatly expanded a complex labor market situation characterised by many employees working under temporary work status, job insecurity, low social protection and low income level. Although the health of women is disproportionately affected by workplace flexibility, this has been largely ignored. The main purpose of this paper is to draw attention to this relevant but neglected topic.

[Social classes and poverty].

Social classes and poverty are two key social determinants fundamental to understand how disease and health inequalities are produced. During the 90's in Spain there has been a notable oscillation in the inequality and poverty levels, with an increase in the middle of the decade when new forms of social exclusion, high levels of unemployment and great difficulties in accessing the labour market, especially for those workers with less resources, emerged. Today society is still characterized by a clear social stratification and the existence of social classes with a predominance of high levels of unemployment and precarious jobs, and where poverty is an endemic social problem much worse than the EU average.

A new occupational health agenda for a new work environment.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the emergence of new forms of work organization are transforming what had become standard types of work arrangements in industrialized countries. In this new labor market environment, new firms, types of workers, and risk factors are powerfully emerging. Contrary to common belief, emergent occupational health hazards should not be approached only as "technical" or "economic" value-free problems.