Workers’ Health as a Human Right: The foundations of the Brazilian Sanitary Reform

Abstract

Reaffirming workers’ health as a human right finds solid grounding in the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, which enshrined the term ‘workers’ health’, recognizing the centrality of labor in shaping the health-disease process. Despite the prominent position attributed to labor in the constitutional text, this recognition did not translate into the provision of adequate instruments or an appropriate standing within the administrative hierarchy of the health system. As a result, the necessary dialogue and interactions with other domains of health surveillance, as well as with healthcare and assistance services, have been compromised - an issue particularly critical given the inherently cross-cutting nature of workers’ health actions. It is therefore imperative to recover the foundational values that guided the Brazilian Sanitary Reform to reestablish the connection between the working class and the health sector. This involves valuing not only labor union representations but also broader social movements, particularly through mechanisms such as Popular Health Surveillance. Strengthening surveillance strategies by improving data collection within the Notifiable Diseases Information System and fostering data integration across the labor and social security sectors represents a crucial initiative. This is especially relevant in the face of contemporary challenges posed by new forms of labor relations, where understanding patterns of illness and their distribution is essential for addressing the health impacts on the working population.