São Paulo – With the dubious argument of protecting workers from agglomerations during the covid-19 pandemic, Jair Bolsonaro’s government is preparing yet another attack on labor rights: the release of companies from carrying out an occupational examination. On the 29th, the Ministry of Economy published SEI Informative Note No. 19627/2020 / ME, with a draft ordinance that also suspends clinical and complementary exams related to activities in the workplace. The monitoring of workers’ health is provided for in Regulatory Norm No. 07, which requires the elaboration and implementation, by all employers and institutions, of the Occupational Health Medical Control Program (PCMSO). The objective is to promote and preserve the health of workers through compliance with minimum parameters and general guidelines for working conditions.

According to the government’s proposal, which will be presented during the meeting of the so-called Permanent Joint Tripartite Commission (CTPP), on the 13th and 14th of this month, these examinations would be carried out within a maximum period of 180 days from the end of the current state of public calamity. The rule would apply to admission and periodic examinations and would exclude dismissals.

Facing health

CUT rejects the proposal, which it considers to be an affront to the health and safety of workers. Therefore, it will not support the ordinance draft in the tripartite commission. For the plant, the measure puts workers at risk.

“The suspension of mandatory examinations was part of Provisional Measure 927/2020, which has expired. Since the government cannot send another MP of equal content to Congress, it is now trying through the Ministry of Economy. We fought a lot against the approval of this MP and we are against this new proposal ”, said the secretary of Occupational Health of CUT Nacional, Madalena Teixeira.

The leader highlighted the importance of the occupational examination for the health and safety of workers. “If the exam is no longer done, acquired diseases (due to work conditions) can get worse. We will be alert and we will face it against this measure, which is a step backwards ”, he said. She cites, for example, categories in the chemical sector, given the daily exposure to risks of various contaminations.

The president of the Central of Workers of Brazil (CTB), Adilson Gonçalves de Araújo, reinforces that the Bolsonaro government’s proposal represents yet another attack on the rights of the population. “The exchanges will manifest themselves in a way that is contrary to this setback. In addition to vetoing compensation for health workers victimized by covid-19, now the genocide team wants to further unprotect workers. Bolsonaro is more than a genocide. It is a worker exterminator ”.

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The Instituto Trabalho Digno released a technical note in which it warns of yet another setback in the regulation of health and safety at work, “which, even if allegedly temporary, reveals the perverse nature of the process”. And he points out that article 168 of the CLT provides that “occupational medical examination will be mandatory, on behalf of the employer, under the conditions established in this article and in the supplementary instructions to be issued by the Ministry of Labor”.

The technicians of the institute remember that the medical examination is essential to assess the physical and mental conditions of the worker to perform the function for which he is being admitted. Without it, there is a risk that vulnerabilities and injuries will not be identified, which could expose not only workers in the hiring process, but all those with whom they will maintain contact during work.

In addition, depending on work conditions and organization, workers are exposed to psychosocial and ergonomic factors, as well as physical, chemical and biological agents, acting in isolation or synergistically. “A reckless bet on the health of others, reaching millions of people in face-to-face work in the pandemic and after the state of emergency is in force”, they warn.

They also point out that hundreds of physical, chemical and biological stressors remain present in the workplace even in the pandemic. By itself, the condition is already an important functional anomaly, but there is a presence of other risk factors for human illness. Thus, suspending exams during the public health emergency, plus the 180 days after the end of the exam, means keeping workers exposed. This, whether they are carriers or not, whether they are contaminated or not. Insofar as there is a suggestion of medical evaluation omission to the most diverse agents harmful to health, the proposal goes in the opposite direction of the CLT and of stony clauses of the Constitution.

Writing: Fábio M. Michel