Cadernos de Saúde Pública (Jan 2016)

Unrestrained outsourcing in Brazil: more precarization and health risks for workers

  • Graça Druck

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00146315
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 32, no. 6

Abstract

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Abstract: This article discusses the current status of outsourcing in Brazil, with new regulation underway featuring a bill of law under review by the National Congress, aimed at allowing outsourcing for all activities. The authors argue that outsourcing and precarization of work are inseparable phenomena, based on the results of 20 years of research in Brazil that reveals the more precarious working conditions of outsourced workers in different occupational categories. They focus particularly on workers' health: outsourcing of risks has led to more fatal work accidents, invariably at higher rates in outsourced workers. Finally, the article contends that to remove restraints on outsourcing in Brazil amounts to legalizing and legitimizing predatory workforce exploitation, disregarding workers' physical limits, exposing them to risk of fatal accidents, and reverting to forms of work that violate the human condition.

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