Concepts and practices of labor prosecutors on the relationship between mental health and work

Abstract

This article reports a research that aimed to analyze how labor prosecutors understand the relationship between mental health-illness process and work, as well as to identify their practices on this topic. Open interviews were conducted in-depth with four prosecutors of Minister of Labor (MPT). The results indicate that respondents have a very critical conceptual analysis about the notion of precariousness of work and its relations with the damages to mental health. However, despite their familiarity with the theoretical discussions, in their practices, they tend to restrict the focus of their actions in mental health to situations of moral harassment, supported by the argument that they would enable more objective assessments. This interferes in the reception of the worker and in the possibility of proposing preventive actions that focus in the policies of business management that affect the workers’ mental health. MPT has much to contribute to the struggle for the guarantee of the right of worker’s mental health but for that, it is important it to extend beyond the point of moral harassment. This article intends to offer a discussion on this theme, in order to contribute to the practices of these social actors.