Abstract

BORGES, Livia de Oliveira  and  PEIXOTO, Tamara Palmieri. To be a construction worker is to experience social discrimination. Rev. Psicol., Organ. Trab. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.1, pp. 21-36. ISSN 1984-6657.

The research aimed to study the discrimination and social prejudices that affect both employee life and management practices in building construction in Belo Horizonte. A psycho-sociological perspective was adopted in which the phenomena of discrimination and social prejudices were considered in their socioeconomic and political context. As to method, three strategies were applied: content analysis of 22 labor union newsletters, a survey applying a structured questionnaire to 361 worker participants, and individual and semi-structured interviews with two workers. The results exposed the prevalence of veiled prejudices, and the experiences of workers as a social minority, including the development of attitudes of resignation that crystallize and naturalize social discrimination. The worker's knowledge is ignored and the lack of formal knowledge, dominated by the outgroup, is emphasized. This points out the need for organizational management in the building sector to incorporate and learn social practices of questioning that contribute to transforming the social si-tuation.

Keywords : construction workers; prejudices; working conditions; psycho-sociological perspective.

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