SAÚDE E TRABALHO:UM ESTUDO COM PROFISSIONAIS ESPECIALISTAS E TÉCNICOS DO SISTEMA PENITENCIÁRIO FEDERAL

Abstract

The objective of this research is to analyze the risk factors presented to the health of workers (representatives of the technical categories and specialists) in the Brazilian Federal Penitentiary System. As an epistemological basis, studies of the Critical Theory of Society – Frankfurt School are used. As specific objectives of this investigation, we seek to: (i) analyze the rates of absence due to health at work; (ii) identify how workers assess the organization of work and its relationship with illness; (iii) verify the risks to the worker's health associated with working conditions. As instruments for data collection, the Protocol for the Assessment of Psychosocial Risks at Work (PROART), developed by Mendes and Ferreira (2007) is used — from items extracted from the Inventory of Work and Risks of Illness (ITRA) — and validated by Facas (2013) in his doctoral thesis. PROART is composed of four scales that assess different and, at the same time, complementary factors, covering, among others, the following topics: prescribed organization of work, pathogenic suffering, management styles and work-related harm. In the summary of the general results, in relation to the organization of work, an attribution of the most degrading service to the group of older servers stands out. In the analysis of management styles, normative and individualistic styles are highlighted. In the scale called “pathogenic suffering at work”, the result “alert” is present in the three factors (disqualification, indignation, uselessness), with emphasis on the indignation factor in the item “my work is exhausting”. Regarding the analysis of physical and psychological damage, the oldest employees, between 6 and 12 years of service, the physicists stand out with the highest averages. The item “sleep disturbance” (physical damage scale) appears with the highest average in relation to the other analyzed items. Furthermore, with regard to the analysis of the complementary questionnaire, it is evident that workers face, in addition to psychic risks, physical risks, as they live with the idea of death as a “work hypothesis”. Prominently, the results found indicated alert, with a borderline situation for psychosocial risks, which would require a series of short and medium term interventions within the organization.

Keywords: Federal prisons. Assistance professionals. Illness at work.