Indisciplinados os que adoecem e nômades os que reclamam férias: a saúde nos autos trabalhistas de Pelotas (1936-1945)

Abstract

During the early years of the Labour Courts in the District of Pelotas (1936-1945), five hundred legal actions were brought. With a few exceptions, most of them were taken by the labourers and its main cause was the unfair dismissals based on Law 62 from 1935. Among all demands, it could be clearly seen that forty-six reported on health issues. Therefore, this research lies on the analysis of how health problems were treated by Justice and what were the strategies used by employers to officialise the dismissal of sick workers by the time in which Conciliation and Judgment boards were still working. These institutions were in charge of delivering opinions about the demands which reached the Labour Inspection Desks, and these were the cases which inspired the authors of the Compilation of Labour Laws. Three main motivations involving labourer’s health and employer’s strategies could be perceived. The first one reports on a very common practise of that time, the changing in the employment status from monthly-workers to daily-workers resulting in dismissal after such long sick leaves; regarding there were no legal restrictions to this practice. The second one is related to cases of lung disorders, especially tuberculosis, which appears in the majority of the cases and gives the evidence that the workplace acted as a disease transmitter. The third one represents the demands of people who were dismissed by indiscipline, after being laid off for health reasons. The records of Judiciary are a very rich source of information. Even though these are very ancient cases, they are still alive in people’s memory. The fact of revising them is a way of preserving the identity and social memory of workers.