Worker's health & outsourcing: worker's profile in a hospital cleaning service

Abstract

In the last two decades, service outsourcing has reduced companies' costs by the rationalization of their actions and the exploration of precarious work relations. This research aimed to outline the profile of outsourced workers in the cleaning service of a university hospital, identify their points of view about the health-illness process and future plans. This is a descriptive study from a quantitative approach, involving a random sample with 50 cleaning workers. Most of them started to work early, 74% were women and education level was low. In 36% of the cases, physicians diagnosed some kind of illness. In the analyzed period, 84% of the interviewees had realized medical consultations, resulting in an average of 3.6 consultations per worker, 56% of which involved general clinicians. Data analysis allowed for the identification of these professionals' perspectives in relation to the health - illness process and their future.