DEATH FROM OVERWORK

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze death from overwork, describing and analyzing work conditions in the sugarcane sector in the city of Ribeirão Preto (SP). We seek to trace a relationship between overwork and the requirement of production targets, and working conditions analogous to slavery. It is also presented the hypothesis that the occurrence of deaths of workers from overwork is due to poor working conditions combined with high performance exigencies. The methodological procedures consist of the analysis of death certificates of eight workers, and the causae mortis of twenty dead workers while working at cane cutting. The declared causes, such as cardiac arrest, pancreatitis, hemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction, unknown cases, among others, are investigated. Interviews were made with relatives (father, mother, wife or widow, siblings) in order to determine the health condition of the workers before they started working in cane cutting. Based on this methodology, the results obtained permit us to maintain the hypothesis that death from overwork is also present at the sugarcane sector.

Sugarcane agribusiness; Work intensification; Working conditions; Death from overwork