Fábrica de lesionados/as! Fábrica de inválidos/as? Trabalho, gênero e trajetórias de incapacitação entre trabalhadores/as da indústria automotiva da Bahia.

Abstract

Under adverse conditions, work can lead to illness and serious consequences, including work disability. Work disability can be defined as the situation in which a worker is unable to maintain or return to work due to injury or illness. There are several determinants that can influence the process of leave and return to work. This study sought to understand, from a gender perspective, the experiences and trajectories of work disability of male and female workers in the automotive industry. This is a qualitative research, designed from the perspective of an Extended Case Study. Data production relied on a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies, document analysis, and public databases; and an ethnographic fieldwork, which involved participant observation, interviews with men and women that worked in the automotive industry in the metropolitan region of Salvador and experienced work disability, as well as interviews with agents interested in the problem of work-related illness and work disability in the automotive industry. Data analysis was based on the theoretical perspective of Burawoy's reflective science and Bourdieu's reflective sociology. The research results are presented in this thesis in 4 chapters: Chapter 1 is a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies that investigated the relationship between gender and disability in the period between 2008 and 2018; Chapter 2 addresses the trajectories of entering the factory, the incorporation of dispositions to work in the metallurgical industry, and the process of constituting oneself as part of a class under construction, and the strategies for staying at work. The results of this chapter seek to explain how Gender mediates this process and how gender differences and inequalities are expressed; Chapter 3 presents the emergence of the phenomenon of work-related illness, the available data on illness in the automotive sector, the different points of view on this problem, the intersection of gender in the construction of this point of view, and the actions developed on this theme; The chapter presents the findings that are related to trajectories disruption of agents from the point of work disability, showing how the illness represents a moment of rupture with the laborer’s mobility and with belonging to a social class in formation. It also discusses how the “Work x Family tensions” are shown to be decisive in the decision to leave work and highlights the decision-making of workforce management in relation to workers with disabilities. This chapter discuss how male and female workers make return-to-work decisions, seeking to analyze how the interactions between the Labor, Health and Social Security systems occur in the process of recognizing the illness, specifically among women. The results systematized in this study show that Gender is an important category to be considered for understanding the processes of work disability, as gender relations mediate the trajectories of workers since the process of entering the factory, to incorporation of provisions for work, maintenance of jobs, and professional rise in the career, as well as in the trajectories of breaking with work due to illness. Disability experiences are marked by mediations of the processes of sexual division of labor in the industry and the social gender roles expected of men and women. Gender is also used in the dispute over explanatory models of illness in the automotive industry by different fields involved. Women experience greater difficulty in legitimizing their illness and incapacity for work, as well as greater difficulties in returning to work, due to an interaction of the Work, Health and Social Security systems that reproduce gender inequalities.