The relationship between health and work of FUNASA's endemic diseases combat agents

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between health and work of the Agentes de Combate às Endemias (ACE - endemic diseases combat agents) of Fundação Nacional de Saúde (FUNASA) who work in the city of Nova Iguaçu (Southeastern Brazil) and who were readmitted after being dismissed. It aims to give visibility to the questions which involved their reintegration to work and points to the workers' main worries related to their work situation. The methodology was participant research. Collective interviews were conducted, in which the main themes were identified and used in the research. These themes are related to political interference in their actions, their work conditions and institutional and professional rewards. The workers perceive the continuous precariousness of their job due to political interference and to political and administrative decentralization. Besides that, there is a professional devaluation of these workers from both the institution and the population in general. Finally, the workers gave suggestions regarding the changes that should be made in their work environment in order to give them better work conditions.