Expressions of precariousness in the work of community health agents: Bureaucratization and estrangement of the work

Abstract

The article analyzes expressions of precariousness in the work of community health workers (CHW) relating it to the process of productive restructuring and intensification of social precariousness of work, is part of a completed doctoral research, based on dialectical historical materialism. Between the years 2013-2017, twenty interviews were carried out and a questionnaire was applied to 105 trade union leaders and associations of CHW of all regions of Brazil. The bureaucratization and the estrangement of the work were identified empirical categories; there are transformations in the process and the management of the work of the CHW; intensification of the accomplishment of administrative activities in detriment of the time for domiciliary visits; induction of work to gather information; information systems fillings and goals to be met; evaluation of the number of procedures and not the quality of the processes. There is a tension in the identity relationship of the CHW to recognize themselves in the work they carry out in the territory. Precariousness is expressed in the unequal employment relationships, precarious working conditions and under-compensation of the CHW, but also in the estrangement of the work aggravated by transfers of mediations typical of industrial work to that of services. This produces suffering for workers and challenges unions and associations; as well as impact on the work of the CHW with the team and with the users of the Unified Health System.