The legal precariousness of work relations in the health sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a factor of worker suffering

• Published in: Ciência & saude coletiva 2023-10, Vol.28 (10), p.2797-2807
• Main Authors: Militão, João Batista Dos Santos, Maior, Jorge Luiz Souto, Silva, Luís Fernando, Barbosa, Swedenberger do Nascimento, Machado, Maria Helena, Gomes, Antônio Marcos Freire, Barreto, José Cláudio Silva, Aguiar Filho, Wilson
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; por
• ISSN: 1678-4561
• DOI: 10.1590/1413-812320232810.10212023

The present article analyzed the process of precarious work relations in the health sector, demonstrating how this situation generated illness and suffering among workers. The text sought to register how the institutional adoption of neoliberal economic conceptions, of the reduction of State social policies, coupled with a history of cultural rejection of labor rights, provided the attraction of mechanisms of precarious work for the public sector, notably, the outsourcing of labor and the provision of services. In a second moment, the text points out the legal improprieties committed, presenting the consequences of the weakening of the legal bond in the working conditions of these workers, mainly regarding working hours and remuneration, also highlighting how much the dissemination of these links represented a factor of a general reduction in wages and labor and social security rights in the sector. Data from Fiocruz surveys on working conditions during the pandemic were also presented. The article concludes by showing the urgency of rescuing the legal labor institutes that were abandoned in the historical path studied in order to guide the public health policies in a new direction.