Expressions of job insecurity: The case of nursing in a public hospital in Pernambuco

Abstract

Since the 1970s, around the world, under the neoliberal aegis, labor flexibility strategies have been present in different sectors of the economy and the social field, leading to precarious working relationships and conditions for the working class. The research explored contractual arrangements and empirical categories related to the social precariousness of work among nurses who worked at the Hematology and Hemotherapy Foundation of Pernambuco. This is a qualitative study, whose documentary sources came from legislation in the state of Pernambuco, information about nurses’ working relationships and interviews with managers and these workers. The results allow us to affirm that there is a political decision by the public authorities to encourage the precariousness of work in the Unified Health System. The threat of unemployment, informal hiring, exhausting working hours and degraded remuneration for providing services were present in the institution’s daily life, resulting in a high percentage of 72% of nurses working precariously in 2021. The work carried out under the auspices of a precariousness policy contributes to the disqualification of the public service, as workers adapt their work processes to the conditions to which their subsistence needs are subjected.