As alterações no Programa de Reabilitação Profissional do Instituto Nacional do Seguro Social (INSS): garantia ou supressão de direitos

Abstract

The present study focused on investigating the Professional Rehabilitation Program operationalized by the Brazilian National Institute of Social Security (INSS) in the Social Security agency located in the city of Maringá. The research was anchored in the Marxist critical social theory from which the analysis is problematized under the perspective of the totality theory taking into account the contemporary context. The research sections deal with the methodology to be applied; the ontological meaning of the ‘work’ category; as well as the conceptual and historical perspectives on the workers’ health and on the Professional Rehabilitation Program. In order to collect data, an empirical research was made throughout semi-structured interviews applied respectively to workers in the process of professional rehabilitation, to rehabilitated workers, to the INSS agency rehabilitation professionals, and to the representatives of public institutions who work in the worker protection network. The analyses point to some conclusions, as follows: the INSS Professional Rehabilitation Program conflicts with the capital logic and, because of that fact, the rupture with neoconservative perspectives is needed; the rehabilitation program could only be considered as achieved when it results in the insured insertion in a job that will allow his or her full social integration; the lives of the worker in process of rehabilitation and of the rehabilitated worker are divided between the time they spent working and their current time of absence from work with the possibility of a differentiated return to the labor market. The experiences of both the worker in process of rehabilitation and of the rehabilitated worker are marked by subjection and resignation. In the course of professional rehabilitation there are accurate trials of an interdisciplinary and intersectoral praxis which constitute initiatives that are potentially fostered by workers who are employed at the implementation of public policies level. Keywords: Work. Professional Rehabilitation. Worker’s health.