Employment and sociodemographic characteristics: a study of increasing precarity in the health districts of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

BackgroundThe fundamental importance of human resources for the development of health care systems is recognized the world over. Health districts, which constitute the middle level of the municipal health care system in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, deal with demands from all parts of the system. This research seeks to provide the essential features required in order to understand the phenomenon of increase in precarity of employment in these health districts.MethodsThe legal and human resource management documents used by the Municipal Health Secretariat of the City of Belo Horizonte were adopted as the corpus for this research. In order to analyse the changes in employment (2002–2006), the data were collected from ArteRH, a computerized database dealing specifically with data related to human resources, which began operating in 2001. The workers were classified into permanent and non-permanent groups, and their contractual rights were described. Employment dynamics and changes were examined, concentrating on the incorporation of workers and on their social and employment rights during the period under study. The comparative data for the two groups obtained were presented in frequency distribution tables according to type of employment, sex, age group, level of education and wages from 2002 to 2006.ResultsThere was a clear difference between the permanent worker and non-permanent worker groups as regards existing guaranteed employment rights and social security. The increase in the number of non-permanent workers in the workforce, the growing proportion of older workers among the permanently employed and the real wage reductions during the period from 2002 to 2006 are indicative of the process of growing precarity of employment in the group studied.ConclusionIt is a plausible supposition that the demand for health reforms, along with the legal limits imposed on financial expenditure, gave rise to the new types of contract and the present employment situation in the health districts in Belo Horizonte.

Employment request in the healthcare sector: A case of a specialized not-for-profit hospital in Greece

“…It has been reported that the youngest applicants are less experienced and the oldest can be characterised as the weakest physically and less able to adapt. If both situations are not adequately dealt with by human resources it might have undesirable consequences to the quality of services provided and can increase job dissatisfaction and insecurity (Coelho M., Assunção A., Belisário S., 2009). From spontaneous applications review in this case study, it can be derived that younger professionals, most straight after completing their education, seek employment through various means, without waiting for a post to be advertised.…”

Continuity and change in human resources policies for health: lessons from Brazil

“…The limited number of published evaluations of change in HRH issues in Brazil suggest that there has been significant progress (see, e.g. [ 13 ]), but that big challenges remain, such as ensuring that 'front line' health workers have career structures and job stability [ 14 ]. Broader based research on HRH elements of health sector reform reinforce the need to understand that HRH is only one component of change, and that sustained improvements cannot be achieved without a co-ordinated approach to HRH policy change, along with a recognition that there are no 'magic bullet' solutions.…”

O ano dos 70 anos da EEUSP

“…The rapid increase in the number of seats in private undergraduate nursing courses (6) , often wrongly interpreted as a result of actions to reduce the chronic unbalance in the proportion between physicians and nurses (7) , and the precariousness of work in public health services (8) …”

“…The result is millions of people without access to health services and an increased risk of health interventions doing more bad than good. These statements are applied to the health workforce in Brazil, but it is important to focus on the case of Brazilian nursing.The rapid increase in the number of seats in private undergraduate nursing courses (6) , often wrongly interpreted as a result of actions to reduce the chronic unbalance in the proportion between physicians and nurses (7) , and the precariousness of work in public health services (8) …”