Sentences imposed by Brazilian labor courts in cases of exploitation of slave-like labor, child labor, discrimination, and other demeaning and abusive forms of human toil will be used as examples in other countries.
Based on information conveyed by the president of the Superior Labor Court (TST), Minister Vantuil Abdala, the new director of International Norms of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Cleopatra Bounbia Henry, expressed interest in circulating the Brazilian decisions in nations in which violations of labor rights have been denounced.
In her first international visit after taking office, the ILO director was received by the president of the TST, who underscored the initiatives of labor magistrates in cases that involve serious abuses committed against workers.
“We have issued condemnations against discriminatory practices, going beyond what Brazilian law determines and adopting ILO norms, such as, for example, in invalidating the dismissal of carriers of the HIV virus and guaranteeing them reinstatement in their jobs,” Abdala affirmed.
The same reasoning was used in the cases of a worker whose dismissal was due to racial discrimination and the labor of minors, when the court annulled, as discriminatory, a clause permitting lower wages for employees under 18 in a collective agreement between the company and the union.
As for cases involving slave-like and child labor, Abdala lamented the nonexistence of laws allowing judges to impose more rigorous penalties on those responsible for these violations of human rights.
Cleopatra Henry affirmed that she “would like to receive the decisions of the Brazilian Labor Court system to circulate them in other countries.”
ABr