Workers’ health intersectoriality: Old questions, new perspectives?

Abstract

The construction of Workers’ Health (WH) intersectoriality, while fundamental, has been a challenge for this field of knowledge and practice. This paper aims to present and discuss how intersectorality is addressed in WH public policies, in what contexts it is used, how it is defined, and the guidelines for its implementa-tion. This is qualitative documentary research that analyzed documents enacted between 1986 and 2015, accessed through the databases of the Ministries of Health, Labor and Social Security, and the websites of FUNDACENTRO and the National Association of Occupational Medicine (ANAMT). There is clear leadership of the health sector in the documents proposing the construction of intersectoriality. Terms such as “integrated actions”, “articulation”, “dialogue”, and “integra-tion”, and finally, “intersectoriality” were used sometimes as synonyms or conceptual advances, and generic, polysemic, and supposedly consensu-al expressions. Despite the developing concept of intersectoriality in the policies of this field and the growing participation of the different sectors in this construction, few clear propositions about the effectiveness of this practice among managers and workers underlying the field are observed.