Neither is the man a machine nor is health a commodity

Psychosocial risks of working in the metalliferous mining sector

Abstract

Work can be a source of satisfaction, but also a cause of suffering. According to some theorist’s expert on the topic, this depends on the content and the organization of the dominant production method. Its characteristics provide either protection or exposure to psychosocial risks in the workplace, thus it is the purpose of this paper to identify such risks in the metalliferous mining sector. To that end, and from an interpretative viewpoint, specifically a qualitative one, we took as a case study people working in San Juan, Argentina, in the year 2019. The study detected various factors causing risks and their social consequences, as well as their effects on physical and mental health, the most important being the breaking of employees’ emotional bonds, such as family ones.