Over-exploitation and early deterioration of the workforce: the health of clothing workers

Abstract The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the overexploitation of the workforce and the concept of wear and tear on workers in enterprises installed in two municipalities of the Confection Center of the interior of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. The study, based on a qualitative approach, was developed in 2017 and 2018 in the municipalities of Toritama and Santa Cruz do Capibaribe. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were carried out, following a pre-established script organized in three priority axes: worker profile; social and work aspects; and aspects related to health. In analyzing the data, the totality and history of social relations and their interaction with particular social processes (dialectical method) were considered. The essential guiding categories for understanding the structure and dynamics of the workers’ health-disease process were: overexploitation of the workforce, working hours, work process and production. The concepts of precariousness, intensification, workloads, wear of the workforce were also important theoretical factors of the analysis. The overexploitation of the workforce was an essential element for understanding the process of premature wear and tear of the workforce, revealing a tendency towards premature exhaustion of these workers over the years.