Cidade e trabalho autônomo: um estudo sobre a percepção dos mototaxistas da cidade de Manaus/Am

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of motorcycle taxi drivers in the city of Manaus - AM on environmental health and the risks of their continued exposure to environmental elements. The research sought to describe the socioeconomic profile of these workers enabling discuss the relationship between town and work while conditioning the income and working conditions and also highlights the subjectivities in relation to environmental health through daily activities. The motorcycle taxi drivers express their perceptions of environmental risks and psychosocial health relating to the performance of its functions and raise environmental protection measures that these workers consider necessary. The interviewed were workers linked to the Cooperative of Manaus City motorcycle taxi drivers with at least two years of qualification in the respective category. Information was obtained from semi-structured interview that was applied to 25 workers (all men) in their operations bases (standby local users). Information were analyzed according to the content analysis technique proposed by Bardin (1997). The results show that participants are young adults, mostly in the age group 20-40 years old, completed high school, single, however they have children. About working hours, 64% of these, has a journey of up to twelve hours a day, as a salary of approximately R$ 2,000.00 monthly, and despite the legal requirement of their contribution to the INSS, only 20% of them make the contribution. To exercise the profession, they have to have a list of equipment required by law, but usually the only thing they have is the helmet; this increases the risk of their activity, not only for themselves and also the lives of their passengers, because they do prohibited maneuvers to save time. Due to their work conditions, streets, traffic, are exposed to an extensive working hours, alternating climate, fatigue and violence on traffic. So, despite recognizing the advantages of self-employment (freedom of hierarchical authority, daily financial gain, low investment on your motorcycle), they do not indicate this profession for their children. However, they realize that “mototaxismo” activity is a consequence of socioeconomic status because of unemployment, low education, and also the low investment to acquire the motorcycle; leading to many people to became motorcycle taxi drivers to provide for themselves, despite the risks inherent in it.