Labor Justice Research Articles

The Just Transition and its work of inequality

Changing our relation to the environment in a democratic way implies questioning models and methods of socioecological relations—including work relations. This article critically discusses the notion of a “just transition” toward democratic sustainability as developed at the intersection between climate justice and labor politics. We invite an expansion of ideas of socioenvironmental and labor justice based on Jacques Rancière’s “method of (in)equality,” which problematizes justice theories and the politics of identitarian-group recognition. Our argument is that since both ecological and social crises are produced via inequalities a just transition can be a transition out of the logic of unequal relations—rather than just out of fossil fuels. We posit that socioecological justice in political action can be based on the assumption of equality, the “scandalous” democratic principle according to which political agency belongs to subjects without them having to prove any particular subjectivity worthy of recognition. We thus invite connecting sustainability discourses with a critique of the processes through which subjects become subaltern in the first place, being ascribed unequal positions mostly via violent means such as dispossession and subordination.

A mediação: A resolução 174 do Conselho Superior da Justiça do Trabalho e as disputas trabalhistas

O presente texto tem as práticas mediativas nas disputas trabalhistas como tema central, questionando: a mediação prevista na Resolução 174 do Conselho Superior da Justiça do Trabalho (CSJT) é meio viável e adequado para resolver disputas trabalhis-tas? A hipótese positiva que se propõe confirma a importância e a aplicabilidade da me-diação no tratamento de disputas trabalhistas, mas discorda da abordagem e previsão de utilização conforme Resolução 174 haja vista que é procedimento realizado/supervisio-nado por um magistrado ou outro serventuário, equiparado e com pouca diferenciação da conciliação. Ao final as conclusões do texto confirmam a hipótese. Assim, os obje-tivos da pesquisa são: a) analisar a mediação a partir da Resolução 174 do CSJT, como meio hábil de resolver disputas trabalhistas; b) investigar se a proposta de mediação feita por um magistrado atende a base principiológica da mediação. Para fins de cumprir tais objetivos o método de abordagem utilizado foi o dedutivo. Como método de procedi-mento foi utilizado o método monográfico.

PROCESOS ADMINISTRATIVOS Y FINANCIEROS PARA LA PROVISIÓN DE LOS FONDOS DE JUBILACIÓN PATRONAL DE LA UNIVERSIDAD LAICA ELOY ALFARO DE MANABÍ

La jubilación patronal es un derecho de los trabajadores y una obligación de los empleadores, se encuentra normalizada en el Código de Trabajo en los artículos 216, 217, 218 y 219. En este sentido, las empresas e instituciones públicas y privadas deben garantizar un adecuado proceso de provisión de los fondos de jubilación. La Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí es un centro de educación superior, que como institución de carácter público prioriza los derechos de sus trabajadores y por lo tanto, desde esta IES se gestionan adecuadamente los recursos de los trabajadores sin afectar la disponibilidad financiera y los procesos administrativos sujetos a las normativas legales vigentes. Por otra parte, los informantes que participaron en la investigación mencionan que conocen el caso de varios ex trabajadores de la ULEAM que se jubilaron en la institución y han recibido su jubilación patronal a partir de los fondos destinados para estos fines. Además, en la revisión documental se demuestra que la Ley para la justicia laboral incide en las finanzas de las instituciones de educación de tercer nivel, debido a que con la nueva fórmula, el valor aportado por el empleador es mayor y el tiempo de servicio del trabajador disminuye. Palabras clave: Administración, jubilación, seguridad social, finanzas, Ley.

Judicial Marxism

This article discusses the “judicial marxism”, which was characterized by the actuation of judges who have learned their ideology among student movements and labor unions. Brazilian Labor Justice was created in the 40s, but the true Labor Law charismatic founders were the hyper politicized generation of labor judges, stood out in the 80s and the 90s, when Marxist labor judges held their position, in the field, against the traditional view of a neutral and impartial judge in the Montesquieu style. It’s known that judges who are politically oriented to Marxism produce “garantist” discourses (in Ferrajoli´s sense) when they utter a speech in legal terms (in their opinions), referring to the fundamental labor rights doctrine – which is based on the concept of dignity of work. However, sometimes “labor garantism” and “Marxism” don’t coincide in attitudes of the same labor judges because it’s not necessary that garantist judges have both the humanistic education and the political initiation in their backgrounds. The truth is that Marxism and garantism can live together, once we recognize that the prior is a political and philosophical doctrine, effective only in the political field, but never into the legal field, while the later is a major philosophical theory especially applied to law issues. By the 2000s, elder Marxist judges were challenged by a younger generation of hyper technicist magistrates formed at the benches of the career preparatory courses. By asserting the autonomy of the juridical discourse, rather than the political ideology, these legal positivist judges (in Kelsen´s sense), so called “professional jurists”, partially delegitimized the judicial activism, particularly relevant in Brazilian Labor Courts. Nowadays, Judicial Marxism faces a crisis, losing space to pure garantist and legal positivist judges, although it still holds a formidable aura of legitimacy because it’s the only labor law tradition that deeply justifies the “protective principle”, by assuming the class struggle theory as a main postulate.

Governing the Philippine Public: The National College of Public Administration and Governance and the Crisis of Leadership without Identity

Governing the Philippine Public: The National College of Public Administration and Governance and the Crisis of Leadership without Identity

Guia do Arquivo da Justiça do Trabalho de Pelotas. Núcleo de Documentação Histórica da UFPel – Professora Beatriz Loner

O Núcleo de Documentação Histórica da UFPel – Professora Beatriz Loner constitui-se um espaço de ensino, extensão e, muito fortemente, de pesquisa. Reconhecido pela preservação de acervos vinculados à história do trabalho e dos trabalhadores, guarda o acervo da Justiça do Trabalho de Pelotas, de 1936 a 1998. Os 93.845 processos são utilizados como fontes em pesquisas na graduação e pós-graduação. O presente guia tem por objetivo consolidar informações básicas que possam servir a pesquisadores que estudam os processos da Justiça do Trabalho, mostrando, ao final, alguns exemplos de aplicação em pesquisas já realizadas. Para tanto, revisitou-se a cronologia da implantação da Justiça do Trabalho no Brasil, bem como discutiu-se a importância da Justiça do Trabalho na concepção de direito à memória.

A guerra no prato: uma breve análise sobre o problema de abastecimento de carne verde no Rio Grande do Sul, durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial

A Era Vargas, ao longo dos anos, tem se mostrado um período bastante importante para se pesquisar a história do movimento operário e a legislação trabalhista brasileira, porém, não se pode olhar para esse período sem considerar a conjuntura externa. No período de 1939 a 1945, eclodiu a Segunda Guerra Mundial. O Brasil se manteve neutro até 1942, contudo, os reflexos desse conflito foram sentidos pelos brasileiros desde os primeiros momentos. A escassez de gêneros de primeira necessidade passou a fazer parte do cotidiano da população. A carne verde, base da alimentação da classe trabalhadora, sofreu majoração de preços; por outro lado, essa foi uma oportunidade para os criadores de gado e para os donos de frigoríficos. Desse modo, o objetivo, neste artigo, é analisar de que forma esse novo contexto foi administrado pelo governo e pelos trabalhadores. Para isso, serão utilizados um processo da Justiça do Trabalho de Porto Alegre e notícias do jornal Correio do Povo.

REFLEXÕES PRELIMINARES SOBRE A IMPLEMENTAÇÃO DA REFORMA TRABALHISTA NA PARAÍBA E SEUS DESDOBRAMENTOS SOBRE A DINÂMICA DA INFORMALIDADE

A Reforma Trabalhista produziu um conjunto de transformações no mercado de trabalho brasileiro entre as quais se incluem novas modalidades de contrato, a redefinição das regras da jornada de trabalho, a modificação nas negociações coletivas, o fim da contribuição sindical compulsória, limitações na atuação da justiça do trabalho entre outros aspectos. A justificativa para isso foi a necessidade de se “modernizar a legislação do trabalho”. Há um ano em vigor, as opiniões se dividem em relação aos reais efeitos desta mudança na regulação do trabalho. Afirma-se que os efeitos foram no sentido do retrocesso da proteção social ao mesmo tempo em que se estimulou o crescimento do trabalho informal, o desmonte do sindicalismo e o avanço da precarização e informalização do trabalho. Em face deste cenário em construção, o presente texto tem o objetivo descrever as modificações que já se pode observar nas configurações do trabalho na Paraíba a partir da implementação da reforma. Para levar à frente nosso objetivo analisaremos alguns dados secundários oficiais produzidos pelo IBGE e o MTE, além de outros indicadores gerais. Nossa hipótese é que, no contexto paraibano, tal reforma potencializa o trabalho informal e precário, inclusive, em setores nos quais o nível de formalização e de proteção social eram mais elevados.

The (Other) Effects of Restricting Access to Higher Courts: The Case of Wrongful Terminations in Labor Contracts in Chile

It is commonly argued that the case overload faced by higher courts (especially in civil law) can be reduced by restricting access to them. In this paper we prove that such restriction can also significantly reduce judicial uniformity among lower courts and alter litigation decisions as well as outcomes. To test our predictions we build a database of wrongful termination lawsuits that took place before and after the implementation of a reform to the Chilean labor justice system. This reform exogenously and drastically reduced access to higher courts. As we predict, this reduction increased the probability of a first-instance pro-plaintiff decision (by 36%); increased the percentage recovered by a plaintiff in court (by 27%) and reduced the probability of a settlement (by 16%). The Priest & Klein 50% hypothesis suggests that prior to the reform plaintiffs recovered too little. Policy implications follow.

Just Transitions for Workers: When Climate Change Met Labour Justice

This paper commences a conversation between labour law and social democratic thought, and environmental and climate law. It does so tentatively given that these are bodies of law, practice, and scholarship which have traditionally had limited contact. Part 1 of this chapter details a track record of suspicion between the two, ranging from indifference to outright hostility. It is argued however that this is an unproductive stance as there are shared interests and mutual gains to be had from a more engaged relationship. This is especially true when we consider the relationship between social democracy and climate change, and particularly the changes to labour markets, policy, and law which will be wrought by a meaningful response to climate challenge. It could equally be argued that the physical and social devastation which will follow from a non-meaningful response to the climate challenge will also radically reform labour markets, but that is outwith the scope of this paper. Part 2 introduces the concepts of Just Transitions, and Just Transitions for Workers (JTW) as an aspect of the response to climate change. As a concept JTW draws on a larger literature of Just Transitions, but finds its narrower, labour law focus in instruments including the Paris Agreement (2015) and various International Labour Organisation instruments. The central idea of JTW is that the necessary transition to a low-carbon economy requires a radical reorganisation of the means of production and distribution and that this entails significant transitional challenges for workers, communities and industries. Although still nascent as a policy concept, JTW has already had some significant impact on national and sub-national planning for climate action. Part 3 identifies the legal landscapes in which JTW may find purchase. They range across different legal levels, from public international law to domestic, and take in a variety of legal tools. As such it maps the emerging regulatory frameworks of labour law pertinent to climate change, or of potential relevance to it, from bespoke ILO instruments such as the Silesia Declaration (2018) to broader discussion of collective bargaining, active labour market policies and ‘flexicurity’.

The Brazilian Law of Racial Quotas put to the test of labor justice: a legal case against Banco do Brasil

ABSTRACTThis article discusses Brazil’s affirmative action policies of racial quotas. It explores the reasoning behind such policies as well as the arguments advanced by their main critics. After presenting the policies’ origins, their concerns about the beneficiaries, and the specificities of the Law of Racial Quotas in Federal Public Service, the authors deconstruct the legal case of Carlos Delano de Araújo Brandão versus Banco do Brasil, taken from the area of labor justice. The case involved the application of racial quotas to fill positions in the federal public service sector and has gained national prominence because it continues to be a model or standard for the implementation of affirmative action and the Law of Racial Quotas. Its examination allows the contextualization and discussion of the most commonly used justifications for rejecting such policies. The article concludes that, despite their years of existence in Brazil, affirmative action policies continue to face obstacles that prevent their full application and limit their effectiveness.

Labor Justice across the Americas

Labor Justice across the Americas

A Model for Measuring Fair Labour Justice in Hotels: Design for the Spanish Case

There is a growing awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability as a global movement. The hospitality sector is one of the major industries driving socioeconomic development worldwide (especially in economies such as Spain) and it has responded to this need, in the context of a general worsening of labor conditions in this sector. Evidence of this response is the Fair Hotels Project, which is an international collaborative effort aimed at building new partnerships between fair trade movements and trade unions in order to have a positive effect on the labour market in the hotel sector. This article describes the design of Hoteles Justos Laboralmente Responsables (HJLR), a fair labour justice and socially responsible model for hotels oriented to contribute to sustainability and labour justice within the Spanish hotel sector. The HJLR model was created to meet corporate, labour and local development needs. It includes accurate and objective measures—and homogeneous and comparable indicators—to assess the level of fairness and quality of labour practices of hotels. This model would be of great utility in improving the sustainability and quality of life of people working in this economic sector and could be also used by companies to improve their competitive position. The Spanish Government has shown its support for this project as a part of its 2030 sustainable tourism strategy, aimed to get the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, this is a relevant line for future research, once the implementation phase is completed and quantitative data is available to measure the situation in depth.

Questionamentos sobre o fazer-se da Justiça: TRT 7ª Região, Fortaleza, anos 1940 e 1950.

O artigo é parte de uma pesquisa de doutorado sobre a Justiça do Trabalho e os Trabalhadores em Fortaleza. Objetivando investigar a Justiça do Trabalho e sua atuação no mundo do trabalho, e como os trabalhadores travaram lutas na arena jurídica para assegurar seus direitos trabalhistas, é que nos propomos analisar fontes processuais do arquivo do TRT da 7ª Região, nos anos 1940, quando da instalação do Conselho Regional do Trabalho – CRT, até os anos de 1950, período em que esses processos questionadores das decisões judiciais deixaram de existir. Buscamos fazer uma análise depurada dos dissídios individuais e coletivos, de pessoas físicas e jurídicas, questionando a morosidade nos julgamentos, a escolha de juízes vogais, contra o descumprimento do acordo pela parte patronal, dentre outras situações que colocavam em dúvida o fazer-se da Justiça do Trabalho no âmbito local. A pesquisa elucidou os meandros da Justiça do Trabalho na cidade de Fortaleza, revelando os conflitos que engendraram sua formação e solidificação ao longo dos anos, sendo ainda hoje referência de luta dos trabalhadores.

A judicialização do conflito do trabalho na reforma trabalhista brasileira de 2017

Este texto discute o papel da judicialização do conflito do trabalho mediado pela Justiça do Trabalho. A partir de perspectivas teóricas conceituais de resolução do conflito do trabalho e acesso ao direito, o artigo apresenta como questão central da análise as alterações no controle da interpretação judicial introduzidas pela Lei 13.467 de 2017 (“Reforma Trabalhista”). Em seguida, o texto analisa o conteúdo e alcance das alterações normativas do artigo 8º da CLT, com o objetivo de identificar a reconfiguração que produz no sistema de interpretação da norma trabalhista. O objetivo fundamental do texto é apresentar elementos argumentativos que respondam adequadamente a um modelo interpretativo do artigo 8º da CLT em conformidade com a Constituição.
 PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Direito do Trabalho. Reforma Trabalhista. Judicialização. Justiça do Trabalho. Interpretação da norma trabalhista.

Labor Justice across the Americas

Labor Justice across the Americas

Labor Justice across the Americas

Labor Justice across the Americas

A REPERCUSSÃO DAS DECISÕES DO TRIBUNAL MARÍTIMO NOS TRIBUNAIS REGIONAIS DO TRABALHO DA 1ª, 2ª, 3ª e 17ª REGIÕES.

After a long period of controversy and doubts about the role of the Maritime Court within our legal system, the doctrine has finally settled it as a proof of relative presumption. However, the day-to-day praxis of the workman reveals a scenario where such certainty is confronted with the theory of professional risk, generating in turn a possible loss of importance of the judgments of that Court as evidence in the final decision of labor proceedings. Hence the present study uses as a tool the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the jurisprudence of the Regional Labor Courts of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 17th Regions published since 2010 to analyze the practical relationship between the Maritime Court and Labor Justice. As a result, it is exposed that this is a friendly relationship, in which both Courts respect the competence of others. However, in the end, it also emerges that these TRTs, even though they recognize the presumption of relative certainty of MC decisions, they do not relay on them because of their own technicalities.

"We used to be patrons—now we are pickets!": The League of Women Shoppers, the Picket Line, and Identity Formation, 1935–1949

During the 1930s, members of the League of Women Shoppers (LWS) marched in a number of picket lines to support striking workers. Labor disputes like the 1937 National Pants strike in Washington, DC, gave LWS members an opportunity to explore their conviction that volunteering on the picket line could be simultaneously an expression of wise consumerism, a courageous act of citizenship, and an affirmation of traditional values. Fighting for labor justice could help all American citizens gain the resources to create healthy homes and become productive consumers. In pursuit of these ideals, however, the LWS confronted accusations of disloyalty by anticommunist crusaders. LWS members themselves disagreed about what constituted proper conduct on the picket line. LWS picketing endeavors, therefore, illuminate the complex interplay of identity formation and public protest for activist women negotiating the treacherous terrain between liberalism and conservatism during the first half of the twentieth century.

La dimensión sociolaboral de la responsabilidad social empresarial y las empresas transnacionales ¿Un binomio imperfecto?

El presente trabajo investigativo trata de responder la pregunta sobre la interconexión que puede existir entre la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) y las empresas transnacionales con una mirada a la dimensión sociolaboral. Desde esta perspectiva, ofrece un análisis de la RSE iniciando con su concepción, los derechos de empresa, la teoría de los stakeholders hasta cerrar con los instrumentos internacionales de soft law que regulan este tipo de responsabilidad; todos como elementos concomitantes que brindan la lógica de comercio y desarrollo sostenible en términos de inversión con impactos positivos en los países anfitriones. En cuanto a justicia laboral para los trabajadores se hace énfasis en las declaraciones promulgadas por la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) en lo relativo al trabajo decente que se traduzca en “más y mejores empleos” a la luz de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS), siendo uno de los focos de atención la inversión extranjera directa como la estrategia de mayor auge ejecutada por las empresas transnacionales y multinacionales. Por último, se retoma el comercio internacional con los acuerdos de libre comercio vigentes en el país, reconociendo que existen oportunidades de articulación de principios y enfoques aparejados con la RSE, que permitirán un mayor contro mediante los mecanismos de ejecución de los mismos tratados.