Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Safety measures protecting Brazilian labourers against work in dangerous conditions are coming under threat by the government’s efforts to ease regulations during the coronavirus pandemic, labour authorities warn.
One regulation was altered already to restrict labour inspectors’ authority to shut down dangerous workplaces, and other changes are proposed by the Brazil’s Ministry of Economy that has aimed to blunt regulations since last year, they said.
Healthcare workers wearing protective face masks take part in the daily morning prayers in front of the Mario Covas JR municipal hospital, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Ilhabela, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, on 24th April. PICTURE: Reuters/Roosevelt Cassio
Looser labour regulations could put workers at risk in the nation that has had more than 49,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 3,000 deaths, they said.
“Some of the changes may damage efforts to fight the pandemic,” said labour prosecutor Italvar Medina, who filed a lawsuit late last month demanding the government roll back regulation updates made last year.
One update changed the allowable conditions for workers to toil in extreme heat, to the workers’ detriment, Medina said.
“We have to keep in mind the loss in human lives that can happen,” he said.
One regulation slated for revision in 2020 deals with safety for health professionals and determines basic precautions and the safety gear hospitals must provide to employees.
For those on the frontlines of the coronavirus fight, the threat of changing the regulation compounds their fears of infection.
Even existing regulations “are repeatedly disrespected,” said Inara Ruas, a nurse in Rio Grande do Sul state.
“We work in fear,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We would be the first to fall.”
Some 9,000 complaints about labour conditions lodged in the last two months listed fears about the virus, data from the Labour Prosecutor’s Office showed.
Among them were concerns about workers in conditions where there was risk of contagion.
“We have been getting worrying reports relating to COVID-19,” said Luiz Scienza, a labour inspector and vice-president at Instituto Trabalho Digno, a non-profit that promotes safe working conditions.
A recurring issue was whether labour inspectors can shut down unsafe workplaces, he said, adding that many job sites were likely still operating because of the uncertainty.
The Economy Ministry did not reply to repeated requests for comment.
In past governments, a regulation could take from six months to three years to be revised. But since Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency in 2019, the procedure has been expedited to take as little as two months.
In early April, labour prosecutors asked the Economy Ministry to stop changing labour regulations during the pandemic but received no reply, said Medina.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered Brazil’s government to obey due process, putting a halt on the expedited procedure, but did not freeze new changes or roll back recent ones.
“The government is using this crisis to take rights [from workers],” said Alfredo Gonçalves, workers’ health secretary at Rio Grande do Sul’s chapter of Brazil’s biggest trade union confederation, known as CUT.
“Taking advantage of this moment we are living is like being a vulture.”
