Employment conditions and health inequities: a case study of Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Dias,Elizabeth Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Oliveira,Roberval Passos de, Machado,Jorge H., Minayo-Gomez,Carlos, Perez,Marco Antonio Gomes, Hoefel,Maria da Graça L., Santana,Vilma Sousa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Cadernos de Saúde Pública
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-311X2011001200016
• topic: Occupational Health; Working Conditions; Job Market; Health Inequalities

This paper was prepared for the Employment Conditions and Health Inequalities Knowledge Network (EMCONET), part of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. We describe the Brazilian context of employment conditions, labor conditions and health, their characteristics and causal relationships. The social, political and economic factors that influence these relationships are also presented with an emphasis on social inequalities, and how they are reproduced within the labor market and thereby affect the health and wellbeing of workers. A literature review was conducted in SciELO, LILACS, Google and Google Scholar, MEDLINE and the CAPES Brazilian thesis database. We observed that there are more workers operating in the informal sector than in the formal sector and these former have no social insurance or any other social benefits. Work conditions and health are poor in both informal and formal enterprises since health and safety labor norms are not effective. The involvement of social movements and labor unions in the elaboration and management of workers' health polices and programs with universal coverage, is a promising initiative that is underway nationwide.