Working conditions in the Brazilian sugarcane market

Abstract

The Brazilian sugarcane production has grown significantly over the past decade. However, this market has facing barriers on international market as consequence of arguments concerning to the sugarcane socioeconomic and environmental sustainability. On the social context, the discussion is related to unsatisfactory labor conditions that may conduce to workers to harmful situations. This paper proposes to investigate sugarcane work conditions in three major producing states comparing to other important agricultural markets. The analysis is grounded on the data basis of surveillance offices from Labor and Employment Ministry. Additionally, interviews were applied to some agents of this market. Overall, results suggest a decreasing on sugarcane labor irregularities especially in comparison to other markets. Recent government labor policies have contributed to working conditions improvements. Also, sugarcane has been presenting significantly smaller irregularities ratios than other markets. Notwithstanding the existence of particular and located labor infringements, the sugarcane market has evolving labor issues and attending to the federal labor legislation.