Trade saves 1 billion dollars with labor reform

Agamemnon Martins, one of the country's largest law firms in the country working in the field of work, headquartered in Sao Paulo and offices in several countries, had an average of 2,000 shares a month. In the first year of labor reform, the number fell by half. Part of the falls refers to the fear of workers from the court and, if he loses the lawsuit, he must bear the costs of the lawyers of the company.

Many expect definitions from higher courts because there are doubts about the application of new rules among judges, agency agent Agamenon Martins Oliveira says. The actions that are coming are prone, with no claims that are considered "adventurous" – which are not legally maintained. "We are able to prove everything we are looking for," he says.

In order to offset the fall in labor shares, Oliveira began to focus on the banking sector, mainly in the abuse of fees. He also prepares his team of about 80 lawyers for work in the field of social insurance. "The social insurance reform should create a huge legal demand," he predicts.

Mattos Filho Advogados, Solon Cunha, an employment partner, says the reform has brought greater responsibility to lawyers on both sides. "It used to be" catching, getting "and there were crazy demands." According to him, the most wanted claims are moral damages, "which were on the verge of irresponsibility".

"Excessive requests for overtime and unhealthy work without evidence have also dropped due to the inconvenience and costs of experts," says Fernando Durao, director of the JBM Advogados Work Organization. "There is more caution and reasonableness in the processes."

From January to September, the number of new lawsuits decreased by 36% compared to the same period of 2017. According to the Higher Labor Court (TST), there were 1.28 million shares, which is 726 thousand less than last year. This is the minimum number of litigation for a period of 5 years.

According to Heli Zilberstein, from the Foundation for Economic Research (Fipe), a conflict between workers and the company continues, but over time, they will both create simpler ways to solve this "because justice is more complicated."

Jobs. One of the arguments for approving the reform, the one from the creation of jobs, was "not reached", in the vision of a lawyer for the work and professor of the OAB School of Advocacy Ariane Joice dos Santos. "The number of unemployed is very close to what was confirmed before retirement, which proves that this is not a labor legislation that creates barriers to employment," he says. By the end of 2017, there were 13.4 million unemployed people in the country, and now they are 12.7 million and 5% less.

According to Jose Marcio Camargo, a professor of economics at the PUC / Rio, it is still too early to assess the impact on the employment level, but considers the flexibility of work rules to help reduce the unemployment rate – 13.7% 2017 and today is 11.9%.

The second outcome of the reform was 115,800 individual agreements between employees and employers for layoffs. A number of collective agreements (trade union negotiations with the category) fell from 3,725 in 2017 to 2,701. Collective bargaining (trade union negotiations with the company) fell from 18,638 to 14,114. Negotiations are longer this year, says technical director Dieese Clemente Ganz Lucio. "On the basis of the reform, the business began to change or withdraw the social clauses provided by the previous agreements."