Os desafios na construção de um conceito de trabalho escravo contemporâneo em contextos de vulnerabilidade laboral no estado do Amazonas

Abstract

The theme of this research has the scope of analyzing contemporary slave labor in contexts of labor vulnerability in the state of Amazonas. The study is guided by understanding and investigating the protection of constitutionalized fundamental rights, human dignity, the social value of work and the healthy quality of life in the workplace for workers in situations similar to slavery. The general objective outlines an attempt to balance the concept of contemporary slave labor based on contexts of labor vulnerability in the state of Amazonas. This challenge signals the necessary attention to the peculiarities of the Amazonian context in the form of forced labor, exhausting working hours, degrading conditions and restrictions on the victim's movement due to debt incurred. For the digression of the theme, the first specific objective of the work is to initially analyze the contemporary concept of work in conditions analogous to slavery and its configuration modalities, taking as a basis the regulations set out in article 149 of the Brazilian Penal Code, from the perspective of the necessary adaptation to a multi- complexified and specific context of the state of Amazonas. The description of the necessary protection instruments for workers subjected to slave labor, both international and national, as well as constitutional and administrative protections, comprise the second specific objective. The third specific objective of the research will be the profile analysis of data from the observatory for the eradication of slave labor in the state of Amazonas from 1995 to 2021, in the face of a multidimensional exploration of work analogous to slavery and its legal-social implications. Lastly, the last specific objective describes the study of concrete cases of occurrences of work similar to slavery in the state of Amazonas. The elective case studies for this research refer to the illegal deforestation sector in native forests in the municipality of Lábrea, in the state of Amazonas and a second case of domestic slave labor in the city of Manaus. The period of isolation as a non-pharmacological measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, served as a time frame for the research, notably between the years 2020 to 2023.The methodology used in the research is predominantly qualitative, being exploratory, descriptive and explanatory, with concrete case studies. Notably, in relation to the data collected from the observatory for the eradication of slave labor in the state of Amazonas – SmartLab, the research is quantitative and descriptive. The research concluded that in multi-complexified contexts such as the case of the state of Amazonas, the challenges in framing and characterizing the currently existing concept of work in a condition analogous to slavery are strongly marked by the crossing of labor vulnerability, as a dynamic and multi-determined reality . An effort is required to achieve balance in the formulation of public policies, as well as in professional practices and in society itself, in order to overcome heightened risks and be effective in protecting the human dignity of workers.