Condições de trabalho no setor de corte manual de cana-de-açúcar

Abstract

The sugar-alcohol industry has historically been an important Brazilian economic activity - it is estimated that today it corresponds to around 2% of the national GDP. However, alongside this economic abundance, there is one of the most precarious work activities still in force: the manual cutting of sugar cane. Normally, such activities are developed in the midst of serious problems in the work environment, which ends up vigorously affecting the health of each worker, whether physically or mentally. In view of the above, the main objective of the current work was to present in detail the adversities of the manual sugarcane cutting sector. Using a bibliographic survey, the research highlighted the main labor problems in the sugarcane cutting sector, in the context of the history of the use of sugarcane in Brazil as a raw material of great economic importance. The research results point to the ratification of the economic importance of the sugar and alcohol industry, but above all to the precarious working conditions in the manual cutting sector. Based on current literature, possible proposals for labor improvements for the manual sugarcane cutting sector were also presented. In conclusion, it became clear during the research that, even after 134 years of the end of slavery in Brazil, there are still situations similar to slave labor, with the manual sugarcane cutting sector being a very prone activity to such types of situations.