WORK AND HEALTH: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A REGIONAL WORKERS' HEALTH POLICY IN THE VIEW OF REPRESENTATIVES OF WORKERS AND ENTREPRENEURS

Abstract

This study analyzed the process of building the regional workers' health policy from the perspective of workers' representatives and entrepreneurs. Representatives of the trade union movement and entrepreneurs were chosen to the interviews, being interviewed, in a total, seven subjects from Region 28 of Health of Rio Grande do Sul. Data were analyzed following the theoretical and methodological framework of historical and dialectical materialism and discussed based on the analysis thematic Both trade union representatives and businessmen perceive the decline of formal jobs; those who remain employed are pressured for productivity; identify stress and psychic suffering as the main work-related injuries. The trade unionists emphasize the importance of specialized services in the health of workers, in the public network, and even participated in its elaboration. The limited participation of social control in the SUS contributes to the devaluation of workers' health policy in the region. As for the perceptions of business representatives, the expansion of technological resources and automation does not happen in the same way in all productive sectors of the region. They showed lack of knowledge about the conceptual dimension of the worker's health field, considering aspects related to the field of occupational health as a way of doing health in the companies. As long as the spaces of work (company) and health (SUS) remain with different concepts, there will be no effectiveness in the relation between work and health.