The origins of employee wellbeing in Brazil: an exploratory analysis

The purpose of this paper is to detail the origins (or antecedents) of employee wellbeing (EWB) in Brazil.

The paper examines and analyses historical data in diachronic mode to reveal the origins (antecedents) of EWB in Brazil, and details factors from them arising.

Numerous factors emerge regarding the origins of EWB in Brazil, including, inter alia, traditions of landed estates employing slaves and countryside workers; historical social protest movements; a lack of free association for labour movements and rights associated with them; union recognition providing freedoms and protections in the employment relationship; pro‐worker political institutions emerging; worker campaigns for better quality of working life; a history of exclusion of worker interests by state bodies (and worker resistance to it); a need for worker representatives to gain political office to increase worker‐related discourse; contradictory results arising from relatively recent government policies; and new concerns, and enabling/restricting factors in EWB.

The paper provides a backdrop within which the context of, and future prospects for, EWB in Brazil can be assessed. Limitations are issues of cultural translation apply to the Brazilian context.

Historical data to contextualise EWB in Brazil, an under‐researched topic, is provided in the paper.