05 junho 2011

Brazilian Labor Law: overview

This article does not have any lawyer’s words and or opinions but it does have an understanding of non-expert in law and someone who likes the subject.
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Labor relationships are governed by the Federal Constitution, the Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho - CLT - (Consolidated Labor Laws) and the complementary laws and regulations such as the Normas Regulamentadoras (NR) 33 in total plus the NR34 that is open to public consulting.
The Constitution guarantees the employees a numerous of labor rights and benefits. If any of these rights or benefits is not observed, employees may claim them in court up to two years after termination of their employment contracts. The law claims may be made for the five years period preceding the exercise of these rights.
An employee is not permitted to waive rights or benefits stated in a law or in an employment contract. A change in the legal structure or ownership of an employer does not affect the rights acquired by employees under the labor laws.
Employees’ basic rights may be increased through collective negotiation between employers and employees mediated by the labor unions and some of these dealing may ensure workers wide rights. The labor union negotiations take place usually every year and this agreement cannot exceed two year.
ctpsWorker must hold the Carteira de Trabalho e Previdência Social – CTPS -  (work card) where the terms of their employment contracts must be recorded. Employers have to keep files with very detailed information about each employee and submit this information to the Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego – MTE – (Labor authorities) on a specific document, the Relatório Anual de Informações Social – RAIS -  (Annual Report of Social Information).
There is another situation where the CTPS is not required that is the temporary activities and  at this special labor contract may be used that can not be exceeded a period of two years and if it exceeded the employee has all labor rights ensured on his/her dismissal like those ones that have the work card, the CTPS.
The regular working week in Brazil is 44 hours over a six-day period what represents a 220 working hours a month. the  minimum wage is recognized by law and the current one in Brazil is R$ 545,00 (reais) in june `11.
The salaries are payable at least once a month and cannot be reduced and if the employer also grants some other payment on a regular basis, such as bonuses or overtime payments, those figures are considered as part of the total base salary for purposes of the labor laws that`s the reason that overtime and bonuses are usually paid in cash.
The  law does NOT provide for mandatory salary increases and any adjustment must be the result of free negotiation between employees and employers however the annual collective negotiation between labor union and employer a salary adjustment may happen.


Source:
1.International Labour Organization: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ifpdial/info/termination/countries/brazil.htm
2.Lex Universal – Global Virtual Law connection: http://www.lexuniversal.com/en/articles/908
3. Consolidação das Leis Trabalho: www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil/decreto-lei/Del5452.htm
http://www4.planalto.gov.br/legislacao
4.Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego: http://www.mte.gov.br/legislacao/normas_regulamentadoras/default.asp
5.National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade: http://www.natlaw.com

2 comentários:

  1. There are a few key legal issues for employers in Brazil to think about before hiring employees in Brazil, such as employment agreements, wages to be paid, and employee benefits. Besides taxes, there is another major issue that causes great concern for business owners in Brazil: employment law Brazil.

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