Precarious work, social protection and public health: contributions from the field of Latin American social assistance protect?

The article constitutes a partial presentation of the thesis of the Master's Degree in Public Health at the National University of Colombia. Two central questions organize the document: 1. How is the relationship between work and social protection and the processes of distribution and production of health / illness / attention / care phenomena expressed? 2. How do conditional transfer policies in Argentina and Colombia affect this relationship? To answer them, on the one hand, the results of a documentary research exercise that recorded productions at a global level with a special Latin American emphasis during the last ten years are presented. On the other hand, it reports findings and analyses arising from twenty in-depth interviews with holders of the policies of interest carried out in Argentina and Colombia during the year 2023. In this way, the exercise makes it possible to explain the relationships between the transformations and the precariousness of the world of work and the sexual division of labor with particular mental health conditions, increases in work accidents, and specific occupational injuries. Likewise, it is understood how these conditional transfer policies are configured as potential protective resources or exacerbations of the specific sufferings associated with job insecurity and the sexual division of labor in both countries. In conclusion, it is proposed that the protection mechanisms contemplated in this type of assistance policies are insufficient to reduce the levels of vulnerability and human suffering associated with the uncertainty and precariousness that originates in the current world of work.