This paper provides an overview of public health sector workforce management at the Brazilian national level in the 1990s. The issue is approached in light of widespread outsourcing, considered the most problematic trend in the undermining of the Brazilian public sector and its workforce management. The 1990s were characterized by a loss of the social gains written into the 1988 Brazilian Constitution. Through a literature review, the study seeks to grasp how the casualization of labor relations took place in the public health field during the decade, through a set of strategies including disruption of workers' organization and disqualification of public services, which some authors have referred to as informal reform of the public sector in the public health field. The article concludes with observations on the possibilities for reversing this trend during the Lula Administration, with the affirmation of quality public services, free of cost, in public health.
Public health; workforce; outsourcing
