Empresas e saúde mental: desafios e perspectivas na proteção do trabalhador pelas empresas transnacionais

Abstract

The topic of workers’ mental health is a challenge, as it involves two essential aspects of human life: health and work, intertwined in a field of knowledge that has been called Workers’ Mental Health. The present work intends to focus on this new field of knowledge, of a multidisciplinary nature, focusing on the legal perspective. In this sense, it presents an analysis of the national and transnational regulation of the matter, with a view to evaluating the Brazilian experience and shining a light on the actions of transnational companies regarding the topic. It should be said that the work makes an important focus, analyzing the object of study from the perspective of transnational companies. Therefore, we will seek, as far as possible, to evaluate how transnational companies perform with regard to the health of the work environment, specifically with regard to psychosocial aspects (risk factors and protective factors). The general objective of the work is to investigate the performance of transnational companies in terms of promoting psychosocial protective factors in the countries in which they operate, as well as avoiding risk factors. The following specific objectives are presented: (i) Analyze the globalization of the economy, in its founding aspect, in this case global value

chains, situating the role of transnational companies, in terms of their relationship with nation- states, workers and consumers; (ii) Study the correlation between precarious work and

work-related mental illnesses; (iii) Conceptualize the work environment and Occupational Health, identifying their correlation; (iv) Define and identify psychosocial risk and protective factors at work; (v) Analyze the responsibility of transnational companies with regard to mental illness among workers; and (vi) Propose good management practices that promote the protection and promotion of psychological well-being in corporations. The work aims to answer the following research problem: how the actions of transnational companies impact the mental health of workers and what initiatives can be adopted by them to improve mental health within their global value chain. According to the established objectives, the work was divided into four chapters, namely: (i) Transnational companies; (ii) Work environment and worker health; (iii) Workers’ mental health; and (iv) Transnational companies and worker mental health. The present study is a legal-social research. The methodology used was based on three aspects: (i) bibliographical research, seeking theoretical foundations on the topic of investigation; (ii) collection of secondary data relating to statistics on work-related mental illnesses in Brazil and around the world; and (iii) documentary research, analyzing documents and reports from national and international bodies, as well as rulings from the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Labor Court, all related to the topic. This thesis falls within the area of concentration Business Law: Structures and Regulation, composing its line of research number 02, namely, Transnational Company and Regulation.