Number of cases grew 22% since the STF’s veto on the reform; experts say that percentage should be increased by a new TST decision
The (Superior Labor Court) concluded the trial started in October and established a binding thesis on Monday (Dec 16, 2024) on the criteria for expanding free access to Justice. Experts consulted by Poder360 say that the measure will increase the number of labor lawsuits filed, already on an increasing trend since 2021 – the year in which the (Supreme Federal Court) established that beneficiaries of free justice do not need to pay the fees of the winning party.
TST Thesis Summary:
- the judge must grant automatically free justice for those earning up to 40% of the (National Social Security Institute) ceiling;
- the claimant who earns above this amount can request the benefit with a signed declaration, without having to attach proof of their financial insufficiency;
- the claim may be challenged if the other party to the case presents evidence that contradicts the statement.
Data from the TST show that judicialization gradually increased until the establishment of the Labor Reform (), by the then president (MDB) in 2017. The text of the reform established the payment of procedural costs and legal services for the losing party of the action.
The trend has been a decline in labor judicialization since 2017, after the reform. However, in 2022, processes began to increase.
In the year following the Labor Reform, in 2018, there was a drop of almost 20% compared to the previous year. The number of cases that reached the Labor Court rose again between 2021 and 2022, a date that coincides with the changes to the STF in the reform.
The increase was 22% since the Court’s decision until 2023. First, it rose 9.5% in the 1st year after the decision, when the labor court received 3.161.746 processes in 2022. In 2021, they had received 2.888.085 new actions.
In 2023, they were received 3.519.429 new actions. The amount is 11.3% more than that recorded in the previous year.
Until October 2024, 3.450.527 was the number of actions that reached the labor court. The Labor Court is made up of the TST, 24 Regional Labor Courts and more than 1,500 Labor Courts.
According to experts in Labor Law, Poder360this share growth rate is “direct effect” of the Supreme Court’s veto on Labor reform.
In 2021, the STF declared the unconstitutionality of 2 sections of the law that modified rules on free justice. The sections that established the payment of expert fees and legal fees to those who were defeated in the action, regardless of income.
POWERED GROWTH
For labor lawyers, the growing rate of judicialization will be “empowered” with the recent decision of the TST, which expands access to Justice by establishing that, to trigger it, it is enough to declare hyposufficiency.
Lawyer Sérgio Pelcerman, postgraduate in labor law and process from Mackenzie University, highlighted the danger of a concession “indiscriminate” of free justice. He said that the trend, as has been happening, is the emergence of new unfounded actions that demands on the Judiciary increase, overloads the judges and thus postpone the processes that would make sense to exist.
“[Com a decisão] we go back to a past of actions. Possibly, they must have requests that are unrealistic or that come into a context that is completely disconnected from the facts, and this is the biggest problem of all. The decision guideline, now with precedents, will be measured in 2025”he said. The forensic recess begins this Friday (Dec 20, 2024) and runs until January of next year.
Labor Law specialist Carlos Eduardo Costa explained that the reform came to intervene in the growing demand for Justice and that the movements of the TST and STF, over the last few years, encourage the judicialization of requests that would naturally not be sustained.
“The labor complaints there, between 2017 and 2021, started to have a much more objective content. We used to say that, in the past, labor complaints came with requests from A to Z, right? There was a very extensive list of requests, because the person could ask for whatever they wanted, knowing that, if they lost, nothing would happen. From 2017 to 2021, requests became much more rational and were much more measured”he stated.
The declaration alone was enough to cover the procedural costs until the 2017 Labor Reform. From then on, the benefit began to be granted only to those who receive a salary equal to or less than 40% of the Social Security ceiling – that is, up to R$ 3,114.40. Now, this concession is automatic and the benefit can be granted beyond this portion of the population.
Specialist Carlos Eduardo Costa, who serves companies, also spoke of the possibility of an effect “demoralizing” in the Labor Court, with people who receive high remuneration using the declaration intended for low-income people.
“How am I going to prove that the person should not receive free justice? I don’t know if she’s employed, I don’t know how she earns, I don’t have access to her accounts, right? So, we are going to see again a movement that, in a way, was even demoralizing in justice”he stated.
He added that companies can come out of situations very harmed. He cited as an example an occasion in which the worker files a labor complaint “exaggerated” to facilitate an agreement, already counting on the company’s default.
According to the CPC (Civil Procedure Code), default is the act of the defendant failing to defend himself, even though he has been officially informed by the Court of the existence of legal proceedings against him. It happens when the party does not adequately monitor the legal situation.
For the lawyer at Ferraz dos Passos Advocacia e Consultoria Carolina Cabral Mori, The approved measure reduces the difficulties faced by workers in proving their hyposufficiency.
Mori said that it expands access to Justice in a positive way, as it eliminates the fear of possible impacts on property in cases of judicial defeats that today, according to her, “they only apply in the case of the complainant’s unjustified absence from hearings”.
“In my view, mere legislative changes alone are not enough to discourage the use of the judicial system, since the structural causes of disputes remain unresolved, or employees continue to have their rights violated. What was mitigated was the perception of risk, and the number of new labor actions, growing again, I think reflects the return of confidence in the judicial system”he declared.
