Relação trabalho e saúde de motoristas de transporte alternativo em uma capital do nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

Alternative informal transportation drivers are self-employed professionals who transport passengers to regions which are peripheral and/or metropolitan to the large centers. They act in parallel to the legal public transportation system. The backdrop for this study is João Pessoa, the capital of the state of Paraíba, in particular the city‟s central region, where meeting spots form for drivers in search of passengers travelling to nearby cities or even to outside the state. This study investigates the relationship between work and health for these alternative informal transportation drivers acting in the center of João Pessoa. Professional drivers are vulnerable to risks of illness, due to constant exposure to precarious conditions resulting from work demands and urban mobility policies, and also as a result of the very unpredictability of the traffic environment. Based on the relationship between work and health for drivers who are formally employed, it could be presumed that alternative informal transportation drivers are exposed to the same factors of traffic vulnerability that may interfere with their health. Participants in this study were eight professionals who have performed their activity for at least one year, and have the center of the city of João Pessoa as the starting point for their rides. Four semi-structured interviews were carried out: three individual interviews and one with a group of five participants. Psychodynamics of Work was used as a theoretical framework, with the contributions of Christophe Dejours as a starting point. This is bearing in mind the premises that work rallies subjectivity so as to cope with the reality of the activity and plays a fundamental role in the construction of identity out of the pursuit of self-actualization and acknowledgement. Work is, therefore, a potential source of both suffering and pleasure. In the interviews, the activity was identified as a means of survival which, while eliciting identification in the drivers, represents something temporary due to its uncertainties. It also imposes a burden as a consequence of the hardships present in performing it under a false premise of freedom. The conclusions reached were that these professionals resort to doing hazardous work to deal with their unemployed status, and that they organize to seek acknowledgment of their occupation as a path to preserving their health.