Global Health Watch 1 in one file

3 Hong Kong at night: global competition has led to winners and losers
in developed and developing countries.
What do these trends have to do with Tom, and with human health more
generally?
A reasonably secure job that provides an adequate income is one of the axiomatic
determinants of health. Not only does decent work provide individuals
and families with the income to purchase the necessities for health; it is often
where people form the friendships and social networks that independently
and powerfully influence their health. It is a plus, of course, if the work is
relatively healthy or safe, including not only protection from accident hazards
and chemical and biological pollutants, but also a work regime that does not
exacerbate stress by combining high demands with low control over the pace
and conditions of work (Karasek and Theorell 1990).
These conditions are now only a faint hope for millions of workers like
Tom. ’Formerly well-paid, unionized…employees have been forced to seek
employment in the expanding service sector, where full-time jobs are scarce,
few employees have benefits or earn living wages, hours are irregular, and
many employees hold down multiple jobs in an effort to survive’ (Polanyi et
al. 2004). One in five Canadian workers was employed part-time in 2003, one
in four of them involuntarily – that is, s/he claimed to be looking for full-time
work (Statistics Canada 2004). Counting temporary, self-employed and multiple
(part-time) jobholders, like Tom, the number of Canadians in ‘non-standard’
and more precarious employment rises to one in three.
Health for all in a ‘borderless world’?
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