This article studies the interaction between telemarketing companies, government bodies concerned with worker health (assisted by university researchers) and a union of telephone operators. It reveals a gap between the measures companies take to face their workers' health problems and the reality of this work. Using the statements of these actors in a Public Prosecution Service Inquiry on Labor, as well as the results of bibliographic research on telemarketing operators falling ill, we studied the position adopted by companies vis-à-vis the risks associated with telemarketing work. We concluded, based on the companies' declarations, that they adopt a position of denial of the risk factors that cause telemarketing operators to fall ill, while confronting the government's labor protection requirements, which evidences the insufficiency of the workers' actions and the limitations of government power in this field.
worker's health; telemarketing; occupational diseases; health surveillance; working conditions; occupational risk
