A perspectiva da atividade do encanador: o caso do trabalho de manutenção no serviço público de saneamento básico na região metropolitana de Belém

Abstract

This current research had the objective of investigating the plumber's activity in the water supply service, which is a production system in which maintenance activities are essential to guarantee an important public service from the public health point of view. The waste of water also creates some negative points from the economic and environmental point of view. The workers who are involved in this activity face some ergonomics constraints in the service execution, which consequences reflect on sickness and accidents. Besides economic, environmental and work aspects, the study of these activities has an academic relevance. The case study was developed with the plumbers from the business units of a basic sanitation company that supplies almost the entire state of Pará, limiting the research only in the Metropolitan Region of Belém on the situation of leak removals in pipelines of water distribution network. Therefore, the aims of this research were to know, describe and explain, from the perspective of the activity, the work of plumbers and their forms of regulation that allow the development of the activity. Moreover, based on the understanding of the actual work, present knowledge mainly of hydraulic and some practical actions that can be useful for the improvement of the management services of the water supply. As the main guiding principle of the methodology, the Ergonomics Work Analysis (EWA) method was applied and some technical characteristics of EWA that depend on each studied situation, and which were used on the data collection, producing one synergy among the researcher and the reality of the work conditions. The research results indicated the necessity to understand how the plumbers manage the evidenced variability in the work situations, through the work schedules adaptation, reduction of muscular effort, and the organization and planning of tasks, specifically of appropriate ergonomics conditions. Knowledge management happens in the development of specific skills and abilities through the regulation of operative modes that integrate the characteristics of the means of production of the work environment, the real state of machines and equipment and the norms of the organization.