Casual workers, of whom there is a disproportionately high number of women, are paid less than their regularly employed counterparts; cannot participate in employees benefits; are largely excluded from the protection of labour legislation and trade union affiliation; and are shown, due to the declining purchasing power of their low wages, to have a high incidence of malnutrition. Entrepreneurs using casual workers tend to have difficulties in forecasting their budgets and to exploit such workers, who may well be a new kind of marginality that could easily lead to social unrest.