Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The strategy for the labor flexibility through subcontracted labor have brought a negative effect on the lives of the workers, such as the increase of the unstable employment. This study was conducted to analyze the relationship between the employment of subcontracted firms and the health status of them, and to find out some problems which have been caused in the process of health evaluation and the characteristics of social exclusion.
METHODS
We reviewed the periodical health examination and preemployment health examination in order to compare health status of the subcontracted workers with those of the parent firm workers. The SF-36 questionnaire was administered to assess the self-perceived health status.
RESULTS
The result shows that compared to the working duration of the parent firm workers, those of the subcontracted workers were shorter, and the job transfer rate was higher. In the periodical health examination, the prevalence of occupational and general disease was higher in the parent firm(10%) than in the subcontracted firms(6%). Preemployment health examination plays an important role in worker's health management. Among 6,260 workers who received preemployment health examination, the prevalence of disease was 37.9%. Mean scores of health status measured by SF-36 were lower in the subcontracted firm than in the parent firm.
CONCLUSIONS
Due to social exclusion of the subcontracted workers from the periodical health examination, there is a possibility that the periodical health examination have the healthy worker effect. These results suggests that the preemployment health examination could be a more appropriate indicator which is able to assess the health status of the subcontracted workers than the periodical health examination.

• Keywords: Unstable employment;Health status;Subcontracted worker;Social exclusion