A acumulação flexível e os direitos trabalhistas dos docentes: estudo do fenômeno das companhias abertas de Educação Superior em Belo Horizonte

Abstract

In the 1960's, the privatization of higher education began in Brazil, with the growth ofnon-profit institutions. Since 1996, the mercantile exploitation of education has beenexplicitly allowed, with an intense growth observed in the sector. This processculminated, in 2007, with the opening of the capital of three educational servicescompanies. Today there are six educational companies listed on the B3 stockexchange. Three of them offer on-campus undergraduate courses in Belo Horizonte.This research aims to verify if the regime of flexible accumulation practiced by the openeducational companies that award undergraduate degrees in Belo Horizonte hasnegatively affected their staff teachers labor rights. From this general objective, thefollowing specific objectives were defined: to verify how the flexible accumulationregime happens in the context of open-capital educational companies; to describe thenew work morphology of teachers employed by open capital educational companies;and to reflect upon the teachersperspective on the impacts of flexible accumulation ontheir working conditions and relationship. The methodology used, with a qualitativeapproach, was based on the articulation of bibliographical sources, which had asframework the theory of flexible accumulation (HARVEY, 1992; SENNETT, 2015;ALVES, 2011; ANTUNES; PINTO, 2017), documentary research and field research.The semi-structured interview used as instrument was applied to nineteen teachersemployed by the four institutions of higher education in Belo Horizonte whosemaintainers are controlled by open capital educational companies. The results showedthat educational companies carry out flexible practices such as career planmodification for incoming teachers; periodic dismissals; increase in the number ofstudents per class; increment in the percentage of distance learning subjects;preferential hiring of hourly teachers; reduction of the workload of each teacherbetween semesters; assignment of teachers to administrative and marketing activities;requirement of writing and posting questions on question banks. These practices affectteachers' labor rights by reducing the amount paid per workload; hampering careeradvancement; reducing the academic freedom; reducing the number of classes persemester and, consequently, the workers payment; impeding the financial planning ofteachers in the medium-term; increasing the extra-class workload required withoutproportional wage increase; and breaking of teachers' copyrights