THE TEMPORARY WORK IN THE IRRIGATED FRUIT CROPPING PROJECT: NEOPOLIS PLATEAU, SE

Abstract

The article analyses the "new" work conditions in the irrigated agriculture, in which the relation employer/employee is based on temporary contracts, negotiated face to face. The hypothesis is that this kind of working relation has generated the intensification of the disobedience working regulation and opposed the workers legal political actions. It is based on secondary data and empiric research which took place over the period from December/97 till March/2000, with all administrators of 21 areas in Neopolis Plateau Irrigation Project working, through the application of questionnaires with close and open questions and interview with 17 key-actors. The main researched themes were: production systems, temporary and permanent workers number, kinds of occupation, individual trajectories and salaries. The observation of three meetings among the worker's union and businessmen to negociate salaries at the Regional Work Bureau of Sergipe in 2000 was also an object of study. The main conclusions show the generalization of the partially regulated work, raised under the network of mutual knowlegde makes the social control of the workers stronger.