Entre a lei e padrões voluntários de sustentabilidade: um estudo de caso das condições de trabalho na produção de café no Brasil

Perosa, Bruno Benzaquen; Saes, Maria Sylvia Macchione; Jesus, Clesio Marcelino de

Bruno Benzaquen Perosa

Instituto de Economia e Relações Internacionais (IERI), Programa de Pós-graduação em Economia (PPGE), Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), Uberlândia (MG), Brasil. E-mails: brperosa@ufu.br; clesiomj@ufu.br

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5953-6235

Maria Sylvia Macchione Saes

Faculdade de Administração, Economia e Contabilidade (FEA), Programa de Pós-graduação em Administração, Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo (SP), Brasil. E-mail: msaes@usp.br

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6344-0113

Clesio Marcelino de Jesus

Instituto de Economia e Relações Internacionais (IERI), Programa de Pós-graduação em Economia (PPGE), Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), Uberlândia (MG), Brasil. E-mails: brperosa@ufu.br; clesiomj@ufu.br

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0249-5196

Figuras (3)
Tabelas (3)

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Figure 1
Number of Labor Disputes - Brazilian Labor Justice. Source – Brazilian Labor Justice

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Figure 2
Formal employment in Coffee Production of Cerrado Mineiro. Source: Elaborated by the authors using data from CAGED-MTE

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Figure 3
Number of labor negotiations on NINTER-PATROCINIO. Source: Elaborated by the authors using data from Núcleo Intersindical de Conciliação Trabalhista (NINTER)

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Table 1
Interview protocol (number, profile, duration, and protocol)

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Table 2
Impacts of Institutional and Technological Changes on Working Conditions (interviews)

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Global Coffee Platform (formerly 4C) BSCA Cerrado Mineiro Region Fairtrade International GlobalGap Organic Rainforest Alliance UTZ Nespresso -AAA Starbucks - C.A.F.E. Mandatory compliance with labor laws (ILO).Requires the signature of the document of responsibility for good practices and labor law observance Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Responsibility for ensuring compliance with labor laws and providing incentives for the adoption of labor practices that go above and beyond national regulations Yes Yes Yes Yes Main attribute of certification Basic practices of sustainability Standards of excellence Proof of geographical origin Social sustainability Production in accordance with HACCP guidelines Absence of pesticides and chemical fertilizers Social, environmental, economic, and ethical sustainability Economic environmental sustainability and worker health and safety. Quality, sustainability, and productivity Sustainability in agriculture and processing HACCP: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point.

Interviews	Number	Duration of interview	Protocol of the interviewees and questionnaires
Farms and workers
Coffee Farmers		Around 40 min	Identify the farmer’s profile (education, age, gender, and so on.); Identify the economic activities conducted on the property, considering other crops; Obtain information of the coffee production process, considering the use of machinery and labor hiring procedures; Understand the participation in local organizations and access to technical support and representation resources; Information about the certification process.
Small scale	8
Medium and large scale	5
Rural works of the harvest	6	Around 1h	Labor conditions and salaries; Origin and profile of workers in the coffee sector; Impact of law and certification on labor conditions and rights.
Service providers
Machinery and equipment distributors	3	Around 1h	Identify the growth in the use of machines in the coffee harvest and the perception of the impact of its use for the sector
Service providers to coffee farmers (specially labor outsource on the harvest)	2	Around 1h	Labor conditions and salaries; Hiring strategies and workers registration; Public inspections and certification.
Contractors (gatos)	2	Around 1h	Labor conditions and salaries; Hiring strategies and workers registration; Public inspections and certification.
Organizations support
Associations/Cooperatives/Labor Union	3	Around 1h	Profile of the associated members; Main resources offered to associates, including technical support and mechanization; Regional certification process and other certifications used by associated members;
Rural technical assistance	1	Around 1h	Identify the growth of machine use in coffee harvesting and the perception of its impact on farms.
Questionnaires	Number
Coffee farms	40	-	Questionnaires considered six main categories on information:
			• Farmer profile (age, sex, education)
			• Agriculture activities (crop, area)
			• Coffee production (planting, harvesting, irrigation)
			• Participation on representative organization (union, cooperative) and certification
			• Employees demand and profile

Labor dimensions	Effects from Mechanization and Labor Reform	Statements	Stakeholder
Labor formalization	new interpretation that work can be outsourced to a contractor (move worker between many farms avoiding registration)	“In many times we do not know the farmer, since our relation is with the contractor who moves us after short periods of work in each farm.”	statement by a rural worker
	shorter work periods (machine use) made informal work easier	“Mechanization reduced and broke (fragmented) the need for our work.”	statement by a rural worker
	fragmentation of manual activities on temporary hiring with less labor formalization	“Technology advancements and outsource facilitation are reducing the number of jobs in these activities, which are being filled by temporary working contracts.”	statement by a union leader
		“I know about the importance of formalized work (labor card registration), but if this condition is not available, I need to work and provide for my family.”	statement by a rural worker
	manual work is available for younger workers	“Younger workers do not care about labor rights that demand formalization.”	statement by a union lawyer
Workload and work safety	qualified workers faced long work hours during harvest periods	“In the harvest period, we have to work for long hours, increasing the risk of accidents.”	statement by a rural worker
Workload and work safety	the reduced work offers have forced unqualified workers to face more degrading tasks	“We have to accept exhausting and risky work due to the scarcity of job offers.”	statement by a rural worker
Public inspections	low degree of monitoring by government agencies, reducing enforcement of the rule of law	“The Ministry of Labor has very few agents to cover large rural areas.”	statement by a union leader
		“The low monitoring capacity of Ministry of Work make harder to enforce the rule of law.”	statement by a union leader
	outsource facilitation increases the rotation of workers in different farms, making it harder to inspect irregularities	“We have different working teams which are rotated among many farms.”	statement by a rural contractor (gato)
Social security	shorter labor contracts make it harder to achieve required contribution time to receive pension	“The new pension requirements of social security reform (180 months or 15 years of contribution) are hard to achieve considering the fragmented labor contracts.”	statement by a union leader
Social security	lower income makes it harder to contribute to social security	“My income is too low in order to make the contributions by myself.”	autonomous coffee harvest worker
Wage of salaried employees	the reduced work offers have forced unqualified workers to accept lower salaries	“The few options available make us accept lower salaries and have to increase our hours of work to make a living.”	statement by a rural worker
Wage of salaried employees	fewer jobs paid according to productivity	“Remaining manual jobs for smarter workers provide better income paying according to productivity.”	statement by a rural employers' representative

[1] Source: elaborated by authors

Brasil

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Entre a lei e padrões voluntários de sustentabilidade: um estudo de caso das condições de trabalho na produção de café no Brasil

Abstract