Describing the ergonomic conditions related to street vendors in Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil: problematization and preliminary aspects

Abstract

The Informal employment or informal economy is present in many urban settings even ambiguously defined. This kind of job almost always presents characteristics such as precariousness, insecurity, instability, excessive weekly working hours and lack of regulatory framework. These are aspects that have particular implications regarding ergonomic issues in the work environment. The aim of this paper is to characterize aspects related to ergonomic constraints related to informal sector in Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil. It was conducted an itinerant cartography through the urban areas. A diversity of artifacts related to the dynamics of informal sector were collected from field observation and interviews were performed with street vendors, which provided understanding regarding the demographic profile, in addition to highlighting aspects inherent to occupational biomechanics, safety, environment and work organization.