OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN BRAZIL: LABOR LEGISLATION FROM THE COLONIAL PERIOD TO THE OLD REPUBLIC (1930)

Abstract

The regulation of labor relations between employers and employees began in Europe, becoming more evident in the eighteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution, which promoted the illness of workers, subjected to long working hours, in unhealthy environments and with low wages. Brazilian labor legislation had a different trajectory from those of European countries and, thus, the objective of this study was to present the evolution of this legislation from Colonial Brazil, when slavery was the predominant form of work, to the first decades of the twentieth century, when the country began its industrialization process. The theoretical analysis of the legal instruments related to labor was carried out. It was found that until the end of the Brazilian Empire, there was no specific labor legislation on health, with the first laws being enacted only at the beginning of the twentieth century.