Study of postures in sugarcane cutters in the Pontal of Paranapanema-SP, Brazil

The expansion of sugarcane monoculture in Brazil in the last decades has pointed out to the necessity of considering the question of sugarcane cutters occupational health. In this work we present a cross-sectional study aiming to examine the occupational posture of a group of sugarcane cutters, which work in a cane field located in the region of Pontal do Paranapanema- SP, Brazil. The study was made using the Ergonomic Analysis of Work - EAW methodology and the postural analysis method by Win-OWAS. Through the obtained records of postures, it was observed that during a workday the sugarcane cutters remain standing erect on two legs or in one leg 66% of the time and that their trunk remain tilted and in rotation, according to 63% of the positions categorized. It was also observed that the sugarcane cutter trunk performs repetitive and boundless movements during his routine of work, which can expose this individual to additional wear of their musculoskeletal functions. The activities in which the individual engages have favorable or adverse influence on his posture. The repetitive movements involved in specialized occupations are equivalent to repeated exercises, thus may be responsible for the excessive development of certain muscle groups. The study suggests that the postures adopted by sugarcane cutters can overload their musculoskeletal system and predispose the cutters to work-related musculoskeletal diseases.     

Taking care of you and care for others: an analysis of the activity of the work of technical and nursing assistants of a psychiatric institution for children and adolescents

Our objective in this study, the analysis of potential fields of risk management in nursing work in psychiatric care to adolescents and children, while settings that go from the relationship between technical and organizational determinants of work activity and the skills of operators. It was established focus on the work process of the Technical and Nursing Assistants to seek for response elements in an attempt to understand the health-disease process experienced by these workers. It was used for analysis and data collection, through the method of Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA), fifteen workers of nursing staff - T&NA, between effectives and contractors, and the strategies of action and regulation of these workers in relation to the interface that they deal with. The results show that the workers are exposed to all charges in an intense and specific way, causing physical and mental wear, as it approaches the psychological distress, exposure to the psychic pressure, not only through contact with the object of work, but the complexity of these relationships that are involved in nursing staff.     

The assessment of functional work capacity in the South African mining industry

Overall physical work fitness is a prerequisite in numerous industries. Apart from improved productivity, it remains fundamental with regards to the maintenance of good health and safety. To address worker fitness in the mining industry, AngloGold Ashanti and Anglo Platinum Mining Houses developed a Functional Work Capacity (FWC) test battery. The FWC test battery consists of 19 work simulations representing the required functional work capacity to cope with all types of physical work tasks and work environments in the mining industry. This assessment tool is not only used to evaluate injured or medically affected workers for alternative placement but also to ensure that the new employee is placed in a job matching his physical capacity. This paper reviews the design process and application of the FWC test battery in the mining industry.     

Heavy physical work under time pressure: the garbage collection service--a case study

The increased generation of garbage has become a problem in large cities, with greater demand for collection services. The collector is subjected to high workload. This study describes the work in garbage collection service, highlighting the requirements of time, resulting in physical and psychosocial demands to collectors. Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) - a method focused on the study of work in real situations was used. Initially, technical visits, global observations and unstructured interviews with different subjects of a garbage collection company were conducted. The following step of the systematic observations was accompanied by interviews conducted during the execution of tasks, inquiring about the actions taken, and also interviews about the actions, but conducted after the development of the tasks, photographic records and audiovisual recordings, of workers from two garbage collection teams. Contradictions between the prescribed work and activities (actual work) were identified, as well as the variability present in this process, and strategies adopted by these workers to regulate the workload. It was concluded that the insufficiency of means and the organizational structure of management ensue a situation where the collection process is maintained at the expense of hyper-requesting these workers, both physically and psychosocially.     

The process of constructing new competencies in the family agricultural production unit

This article discusses the difficulties dairy farmers face when they decide to install a new type of production on their units. We intend to discuss the nature of the new competencies the farmers will construct in order to install new production ateliers, and to show the complexity of the means they used, the difficulties they face in this process, and the strategies farmers develop in consonance with the practical knowledge of their profession. The method used was Ergonomic Work Analysis, together with semi-structured interviews, done after sessions of observation and work analysis. The results show that it is possible to apprehend a part of the complexity of the process of constructing competencies among dairy farmers, the diversity of kinds of resources they mobilize, integrate and transfer in this construction process that materializes through their activities in the work context.     

Ergonomics analyses of five joineries located in Florianópolis-SC, using the LEST Method

Considering the goal of Ergonomic Work Analysis to establish, from the point of view of workers, safe, healthy, comfortable and efficient environments, this study propose to analyze the work situation of machine operators at five joineries from Florianópolis-SC. For this, it was applied the LEST Method to evaluate the task made by the operators, considering the physical, cognitive and organizational work environment. As results, it was identified the main ergonomics problems of these workstations, presenting an ergonomic diagnosis and their implications on health and safety of workers. As result, it was concluded that the main ergonomics problems at joineries are related with noise, with constant load of weight and with the postures taken. Besides these problems, others were diagnosed, for example, the pressure for workers to comply strictly the task stipulated and also the poor training and capacity of workers.     

Evaluating work and training within an intercommunicating process of change: reflections drawn from a case study on a chemicals industrial company in Portugal

The new challenges in the field of Health and Safety at Work require the implementation of more comprehensive and participatory interventions, in order to have a real impact on the working conditions. Matriosca Model has sought over the years to involve workers in the construction of new working conditions, promoting transformation through training and recreating training from the transformation. This article seeks to present some of the results of the implementation of the Matriosca Model on a chemicals industrial company regarding the many changes that it promoted, how these changes have evolved through time, how the dimensions of training and transformation interact and what the participants' perception of the intervention was. The conclusions drawn allow a richer evaluation of the process, which can enhance the intercommunicating nature between training and transformation, and what impact this has on the actual work.     

Ports of Mucuripe and Pecém, Ceará, Brazil: restructuring process and its impact on workers' health

This paper presents a comparative study of working conditions and health hazards of two ports in the state of Ceará: Mucuripe and Pecém, focusing workers in the various categories involved in the operational activities of the two ports. The aim is to investigate changes implemented by the restructuring process of ports arising from the Port Modernization Act. In the case of Ceará, the organization and control of work at the mentioned ports occur differently: Mucuripe, the oldest port, had to adapt to the changes enforced by the Modernization Act and Pecém, called Port Terminal, inaugurated in 2001, "was born modern". To achieve our objective, we carried out field work, using Ergonomic Work Analysis. Systematic observations were made of the various activities carried out by workers, as well as interviews with managers, workers and trade unionists. Container operations and other activities of the two ports were recorded in film and presented to groups of workers (focus groups) in order to better understand work organization and the main differences in tasks carried out in the two ports. Each reality presents different characteristics regarding port operations, type of work and labor control. Results indicate that due to the technological innovations, the restructuring process reduced some risks, but brought new occupational hazards and intensification of work.     

Content validation on the Work Performance Rating Scale for sheltered workshop workers

The purpose of this study was to revise the content of the Work Performance Rating Scale (WPRS) as a valid assessment tool for sheltered workshop workers. A focus group of 11 sheltered workshop workers was recruited to collect their opinions about the relevance of the WPRS from the service users' perspectives. A panel of 23 frontline practitioners who had experience in using various work assessment instruments provided at their work setting was recruited to review the content of the WPRS. A 14-item amended version of the WPRS with five new items added was proposed based on the opinions of service users, frontline practitioners, and the concept of the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment (MTWA). An expert panel of 12 professionals at the senior level from various vocational rehabilitation settings was recruited to comment on the content validity of the 14-item amended version of the WPRS. The expert panel agreed that the amended version of the WPRS was related to the concept of job satisfactoriness which could be used to assess the work performance of sheltered workshop workers. Thus, the use of the MTWA for improving the content validity of the WPRS to assess the employability of sheltered workshop workers was supported by the findings of the study.     

An ergonomic analysis of work in the process of professional rehabilitation in Brazil

The purpose of this study is to describe the use of the Ergonomic Analysis of Work (EAW) in the process of rehabilitating workers, insured by the National Institute of Social Security (INSS) in Brazil, and to conduct a brief analysis of the instrument used by this body. Information obtained from EAW enabled the demand, the requirements of the activity and the skills needed to perform the tasks in the workplace to be determined, thus aiding the decision of the INSS as to rehabilitating the workers and their return to their jobs.     

Work Design for Flexible Work Scheduling: Barriers and Gender Implications

The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of work design in relation to flexible work scheduling (FWS), particularly in respect to participation by women and men. There is a paucity of research evidence on this topic. Work design, essentially an artefact of enterprise culture, is constructed by the social rules of place, distance and time. Work practices that assume that work tasks are only conducted in the workplace during standard work time in the proximity of co‐workers and managers do not, in the main, support FWS. While there is no significant evidence in this study that women and men perceive the barriers differently when considering taking up the option to engage in FWS options, the study addresses the reasons for this using a large survey of the Australian workforce. This article concludes that it is time to redefine these critical work design dimensions, in relation to existing power structures, in order to inject real flexibility into the workplace.     

The construction of ergonomic demands: application on artisan fishing using jangada fishing rafts in the beach of Ponta Negra

The present article seeks the process of construction of ergonomics demand referring to the artisan fishing activityfound in Ponta Negra beach located in the city of Natal, Brazil. The instruction/construction of demands correspond to the first stage of Work Ergonomic Analysis and allows the understanding of real issues existent in a work situation, rank them and route the providences. The demand presented on this study, features itself as a induced demand, process which some potential demands or hypothetical demands are taken to an organization, after a preview analysis of the work aimed by the study, resulting from a theoretical research (state of the art) and/or from analysis of a reference situation (state of practice), where demands hypothesis are taken in consideration about the pretended work. The demands construction process using interactional methods and techniques, observation methods and techniques and bibliographic research, researches in state of reference or document. This article demonstrates the efficiency of the methodological choice to construct real ergonomic demands and highlights the importance of social construction on that process, which main goal is to refer the ergonomic actions that allow the improvement of work and life conditions for the fishers and sustainability to Jangadeira activity.     

Raising the Titanic: Rescuing Social Work Documentation from the Sea of Ethical Risk

Abstract

One of the most contentious issues in social work practice concerns what should be written about people who access social work services, how comprehensively, and in what format social work assessments, interventions, and outcomes should be documented. The present paper describes a structured approach linked to an action research project that was undertaken by hospital-based social workers to identify and minimise problems associated with documentation in the medical record. The Social Work Ethics Audit provided social work staff with a risk-management tool that highlighted documentation as a key area of ethical risk. Through a process of evaluating existing recording practices, social workers were able to meet the challenge of improving social work recording in medical records, returning it to its proper place as a vital component of clinical and ethical practice rather than an administrative task submerged beneath competing priorities. It was anticipated that the social work documentation proforma that resulted from the ethics audit process would have applicability in other health care settings.     

Analysis of the workload of bank tellers of a Brazilian public institution

During the last decades there have been many changes in the banking sector organization. It has been also observed the mutual growing of musculoskeletal and mental disorders. This study investigated the workload of bank tellers at a Brazilian public institution. It was performed the Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA). Three employees participated in this study. During the analysis process, three research instruments were applied: Inventory of Work and Risk of Illness, Yoshitake Fatigue Questionnaire and Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, beyond the realization of footage recordings and the self-confrontation. The results indicated the existence of an excess of workload on the evaluated workstations, mainly in relation to mental order constraints, that overlaps the physical aspects. Thereby it was found that the employees tend to adopt strategies trying to reduce the impacts of the excess of workload, in order to regulate it.     

Comparison of a simulated versus work environment lifting task on L5/S1 compression forces

Since a patient's ability to perform simulated work activities guides return-to-work decisions, a significant question to address is whether the simulated work environment accurately reflects the actual work environment. Work hardening programs have been used extensively as a method of rehabilitating workers to return to their pre-injury functioning levels. Re-training workers to lift boxes is a common method used to simulate the work environment. Although very few boxes used in the real work environment have handles, boxes with handles are often used in the simulated work environment. The difference in compression forces at the L5/S1 joint while lifting boxes with and without handles was investigated. The Lift Trak Motion Analysis system was used to estimate lumbar isometric compression forces exerted while lifting a 20-pound (9.07-kg) box. The results indicated that estimates of compression forces when lifting a box without handles were significantly different (p < 0.01) than when lifting the same box with handles. Based on these results, it is recommended that work hardening professionals carefully re-evaluate the simulated work environments currently being used for treatment.     

Wood, management and dust: analysis of the Context of Production of Goods and Services (CPGS) of an academic woodwork

The CGPS of the woodwork of a public university was observed and analyzed. Apart from what is usual in the field of Ergonomics' studies, it is an academic context, where there is not a direct implication of profit, productivity and clientele. The group tried to sever negative and broadcasted opinions about the place by analyzing it from a different point of view. This work was considered relevant, since it is related to neglect of education and citizenship. For this case study, it was used the Ergonomics Analysis of Work with all workers at the woodwork. The instruments were documental analysis, free observation with photographic register, semi-structured interview with the workers and survey Pontos de Verica??o Ergon?mica. The results are presented by the perspective of work conditions, work organization and social-professional work relationship. The present study brought several contributions, such as the complementation of the theory and a new perspective of the analyzed context, o bserved now by the worker's point of view. As a result of the analysis, it was questioned about citizenship and the neglect with the public good, even though the relevant social role that this academic institution plays. In conclusion, the group suggests some proposals that modify positively the CGPS of this academic woodwork.     

Ergonomic work analysis as a tool of prevention for the occupational safety and health management system

This paper introduces the Ergonomic Work Analysis as a relevant instrument to identify the risks in occupational environments through the investigation of factors that influence the relationship between the worker and the productive process. It draws a parallel between the several aspects of risk identification in traditional tools of Health and Safety Management and the factors embraced by the Ergonomic Work Analysis, showing that the ergonomic methodology is able to go deeper in the scenarios of possible incident causes. This deepening enables the establishment of a relationship between the work context and the upcoming damage to the physical integrity of the worker. It acts as a complementary instrument in the traditional approach to the risk management. In order to explain the application of this methodology in a preventive way, it is presented a case study of a coal mill inspector in a siderurgic company.     

The regulation of work activity and the new labor and production contexts

In recent decades, there has been a rise in the use o lean production model techniques. Through this approach, companies become more flexible, a fact that increases the interest in studies regarding the introduction of this model in businesses and its impacts on working conditions. Important observations concerning ergonomics, such as the theme of work activity regulation, have been highlighted in such studies. This article aims to discuss strategies and regulations adopted by the workers on assembly lines that are considered flexible. The article presents the results of a study in a company that adopts some lean production techniques. The study was analyzed using the activity analysis as one of the premises of the Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA). Many aspects of the traditional assembly line remain present in the scenario that was studied, however a new language was employed and aspects in the nature of regulations demonstrate that the relation with lean production techniques influence the operators' operational modes.     

The Decent Work Questionnaire: Development and validation in two samples of knowledge workers

This research develops a Decent Work Questionnaire (DWQ) to measure workers’ perceptions of decent work. Current measurements of decent work are almost completely lacking at the individual worker level of analysis, and this study contributes to filling the gap. The authors designed their DWQ based on the substantive elements used by the ILO in its Decent Work Agenda, with the final 31‐item version of the DWQ yielding seven factors related to decent work. Showing good reliability coefficient values and good convergent and discriminant validity, this DWQ could open up new avenues for empirical studies on the concept of decent work.     

Body postures versus production requirements - the case of a fiberglass parts factory

This study aimed to perform an ergonomic analysis in a fiberglass parts factory. For this purpose, was used the methodology of Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA). At the end of the study it was possible to identify some ways to the development of improvements in order to contribute to the transformation of working conditions in the sector analyzed.