The relation between flexible employment and health is a recent public health research question.1 After a long period of progressive labour market regulatory policymaking, particularly in European Union countries, where the influence of trade unions is strong, employers now argue for a supply of a full time workforce that will allow them to compete in a global market characterised by continuous technical and organisational change. In this global environment, and from a purely economic perspective, flexible employment has become considered as a necessary condition to increase productivity, and is a characteristic common to both developed and developing countries.