OUTSOURCING IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

RESULTS AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The article analyzes the impacts of outsourcing on labor relations in Brazil, highlighting the intensification of workforce precarization. Initially conceived as a business strategy to reduce costs and specialize support activities, outsourcing has expanded and been legally consolidated with Law No. 13,429/2017, which allows unrestricted outsourcing, including core activities, and the Labor Reform (Law No. 13,467/2017), promoting flexibility, turnover, and fragmentation of employment relationships. The study, using a qualitative approach and content analysis of legal texts, institutional documents, and specialized literature, shows that the fragmentation of employment contracts hinders workers’ access to rights and labor justice, weakens social protections established by the CLT, and reduces union influence. Moreover, it exacerbates internal inequalities, as outsourced workers typically receive lower wages, fewer benefits, and face greater job instability compared to directly hired employees. This scenario is reinforced by reforms guided by neoliberal logic, prioritizing flexibility and new employment modalities, such as intermittent work and contracting via individual companies. The study concludes that, although legally supported, outsourcing expands mechanisms of labor exploitation, weakens class solidarity and collective organization, and shifts the burden of economic crises onto workers, who increasingly occupy a more isolated, precarious, and unprotected position in the new employment paradigm.