Abstract
To compare living, work and health conditions, with a particular interest in the mental health of Brazilian and Spanish outsourced hospital cleaning workers. This is a cross-sectional, quantitative investigation carried out in two public general hospitals, one in the Brazilian Midwest region of São Paulo and the other in the Southwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. In total, 78 Brazilian hospital workers and 39 Spanish hospital workers were interviewed using a script with data on the living conditions, including some validated questionnaires such as the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Spanish workers are older, white and with a higher household income, with lower SRQ scores in all realms. Also, they smoke more, have a higher level of visual impairment and allergies, have been working in the same activity longer, with a lower workload and do not hold two jobs. Besides, almost 40% of them consider that their work is autonomous. Brazilian workers are subject to more impoverished living, working and mental health conditions than Spanish workers. Only a few aspects of health conditions were worse among Spanish workers, which may probably be related to their advanced age.
Highlights
In hospitals, Hygiene and Cleaning Service (HCS) workers are a large contingent of professionals, who are essential in maintaining a pleasant and risk-free environment, especially infection
Brazilian workers are subject to more impoverished living, working and mental health conditions than Spanish workers
Considering that work signification is built collectively and that organization and social relationships are essential in this process, we can understand that the risk of illness among Brazilian workers is higher
Summary
Hygiene and Cleaning Service (HCS) workers are a large contingent of professionals, who are essential in maintaining a pleasant and risk-free environment, especially infection. Besides carrying out extensive and routine work, it has been observed that these workers often go unnoticed[1] These professionals are hardly recognized socially-wise because they engage in an activity that does not require specific training, absorbs a portion of society usually with low schooling, and is mostly held by women. These services are allocated by outsourced companies. Outsourcing contributes to poor working conditions, and, less assurance of the rights achieved by workers due to the greater flexibility in labor relationships and contracts. This situation triggers feelings of discrimination against other workers who occupy the same space and have different labor rights[2,3,4,5]
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