A routine of exploration over long working hours. This idea may represent more what the activity of categories such as app drivers in Brazil means than the concept that they are entrepreneurs, their own bosses. 
This is one of the analyzes by political scientist Leonardo Sakamoto in the book “What coaches don’t tell you about the future of work” (Editora Alameda, 243 pages). In partnership with journalist Carlos Juliano Barros, in the book, Sakamoto assesses that these workers driven by technology were deceived.
“They fell for the vicar’s tale that they are entrepreneurs,” he said in an interview with Brazil Agency.
The work was launched last week in São Paulo and Brasília and, this Tuesday (25th) evening, presented in the auditorium of the rectory of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) with a lecture by the authors. On December 8th, there will be an autograph session at Jardim Botânico, in Rio de Janeiro.
Disproportionate gains
The researcher understands that the main problem for workers is that the platforms keep a large part of the resources and pay less than what drivers and delivery people claim..
Furthermore, these workers without any rights also do not pay taxes so that, in the future, they can retire or be safe if they suffer any misfortune.
However, according to the work, workers began to blame the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) for problems of all kinds, as if the law diminished professional strength and rights crossed opportunities.
“The fault for the low salary, in fact, lies with the boss. The fault for working too much, on a scale of six to one, lies with the National Congress”, says the author.
Attack on rights
Sakamoto identifies that there was, in fact, a systematic attack on labor rights that affected the population.
“Influencers and politicians blamed the CLT. The problem is not the rules.”
The book launched brings updated reflections based on an extract of texts produced by them in the last four years for websites “Repórter Brasil” and “UOL” on topics related to exploitation in the professional field.
Sakamoto assesses that there is exploitation of different categories and disregard for the laws in force. He considers that there is, at the moment, a network of concerns of different shades regarding the topic.
Journalist, political scientist and professor Leonardo Sakamoto, talks about the precariousness of workers – Photo Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil
There would be an alert related to the possible damage caused by artificial intelligence tools and the practices that make workers precarious, such as the hiring of individuals as legal entities (the popular “pejotas”).
Other paths to precariousness are work relationships without rights, through the figure of the fixed free lancer (the frila, who has the same duties as a hired person, but no rights).
Sakamoto mentions that there is also the fact that the development formula of large conglomerates did not, in fact, abolish slave labor and the use of children in work spaces.
For the researcher, this is a historic moment for society to guarantee dignity in the work environment.
“We have not yet been able to eradicate contemporary slavery in Brazil. We have one foot pointed forward, one pointed back and both stuck in the mud”, laments the researcher.
Archaic forms of super-exploitation of work survived social changes, as the book argues. The work contextualizes that these violations coexist with the high technologies of our days.
“Technology does not necessarily represent an improvement in workers’ quality of life,” says Sakamoto.
Technology can also mobilize
The author argues that demands and mobilizations on the part of workers are necessary to face the scenario of exploitation. In fact, he addresses that technology can be seen in two ways.
“In this moment of transformation, technology can be something that will make workers’ lives even more precarious. But it can, in fact, guarantee that we can also mobilize staff”, he said.
Sakamoto states that, in the case of app drivers and delivery people, the current fight is to guarantee a minimum price for the ride and working conditions with which these categories agree.
Workers would be mobilizing through social media too, after the shock suffered by unions with the labor reform (of 2017).
“Every day a businessman appears saying that Brazil has too many rights. That’s nonsense. Other countries also have a series of protections for workers.”
Protection and slavery
The researcher considers that the country experiences different forces that fight in relation to the professional field. At the same time that the Brazilian State has an important protection structure in the Labor Court and the Public Labor Ministry (MPT), there is a slavery mindset in the three spheres of power.
He regrets that the PEC das Domésticas, for example, guaranteed important rights to this professional group (made up mostly of black women), but the law was met with criticism by Brazil’s financial elite.
