Number represents a 57% increase compared to 2023 and reflects the growth of actions on the so -called ‘pejotization’
In 2024, it registered a total of 285 055 proceedings that ask for the recognition of employment, according to data compiled by the Superior Labor Court (TST). The number represents a 57% increase compared to 2023 and reflects the growth of actions on the so -called “pejotization”. Under the argument of fraud to the labor relationship, professionals registered as a legal entity (PJ) or self -employed have gone to the Labor Court in search of the recognition of rights. In 2025, only until February, 53,783 new cases were filed, which puts the theme in 16th in the ranking of those who take people most to the Labor Court. The full list consists of 1 881 themes. The number has been growing at least since 2018, excluding the drop recorded between 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic.
In 2018, the subject still occupied the 40th in the ranking of the most recurrent, with 150,500 cases. The growth coincides with the validity of the labor reform, promulgated in 2017, which began to allow the outsourcing of companies’ core activity. In 2018, this stretch of the reform was validated by the Supreme Federal Court (STF). Last Monday, 14, Minister Gilmar Mendes suspended the processing of all processes that discuss “pejotization” in the country until the Court gives a final word about the existence of bond. The decision was made in the context of an action involving the prudential insurer and, at origin, discussed the relationship between franchises and franchisees. The case had its general repercussion (ID) recognized last week, which means that the result should be followed by all courts in the country.
Minister Gilmar Mendes justified the suspension based on the court overload caused by the high number of labor complaints. This is due to the divergent positions between the Labor Court and the supreme on the employment relationship. While labor judges tend to recognize this bond in several cases, the STF ministers have mostly decided in the opposite direction. As a result, many companies have appealed to the Supreme in an attempt to reverse convictions imposed by the Labor Court. For part of the Labor Court, PJ contracts are being used to mask the employment relationship, so there would be fraud. In this analysis, the five requirements of the employment bond are considered: non -eventuality, subordination, burdens, personality and otherness. To recognize that there is fraud, the labor courts must identify the presence of these five criteria.
The Supreme, in turn, has overthrown these decisions on the grounds that the Court has already allowed the outsourcing of companies’ core activities in 2018. For the majority of the Court, the Constitution admits alternative employment contracts to the CLT. In the decision, Gilmar stated that there is a “repeated refusal” by the Labor Court to apply the Supreme’s guidance on the subject. The number of labor complaints arriving at the STF broke a record in 2024, when the court received 3,418 new processes of this type, a 76% increase compared to the previous year. In 2017, the year of approval of the Labor Reform in the government of Michel Temer (MDB), there were 277 actions.
“The judiciary is not aligned. We noticed a clear divergence,” says labor and business lawyer Antonio Vasconcellos Junior, founding partner of Avj Advogados. For him, the suspension determined by the Supreme Court has as a positive point the preservation of legal certainty in the midst of conflicting positions. But the lawyer points out that the decision creates problems for the parties involved – both for workers, who should expect the outcome of proceedings indefinitely, and for companies, who will have their debts corrected by the Selic rate, currently at 14.25% per year.
Lawyers also report concerns about the emptying of Labor Court’s jurisdiction to analyze the actions on a case by case basis. In judging the subject with general repercussion, the Supreme must define a thesis that will standardize the understanding for the entire judiciary. It is expected to reduce the action space of labor judges. Mauricio Corrêa da Veiga, partner of Corrêa da Veiga Advogados, considers that there is “reluctance” of some courts to follow the determinations of the Supreme Court, but points out that the “competence to evaluate the existence of fraud in hiring or the existence of an employment relationship, different from employment, can never be removed from labor justice”.
In a statement, Prudential stated that the Superior Labor Court (TST) and the Supreme “have already ruled in more than 100 individual decisions for the validity of the franchise model.” “A collective definition has the potential to end an already outdated discussion in most labor courts, rationalizing funds from the country’s justice system and generating stimuli for franchise sector, which already accounts for almost 3% of national GDP.”
Posted by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from Estadão Content
