Compensation funds paid to magistrates above, also called , are rights and should not be seen as privileges, says Cyntia Cordeiro, substitute for the TRT-5 (Regional Labor Court of the 5th Region) and president of Sindimagis (Brazilian Magistrates Union).
In an interview with Sheetshe says that, by limiting these payments, the minister of the (Federal Supreme Court) acted in accordance with a political project of someone who pretends to be a “”.
With the registration confirmed by the Ministry of Health in January this year, Sindimagis took its first steps on the internet during the social isolation of the pandemic.
Initially on Instagram and then in a WhatsApp group, the magistrates gathered around the name “National Mobilization”, in a context that, in Cordeiro’s view, was already one of attacks on careers and without the combative stance of traditional class associations.
Almost four years later, they officially registered the first union of judges in Brazil. This legal nature allowed the union to join the action in which Dino suspended.
Cordeiro states that the STF seeks to divert attention from scandals affecting the court and denies that the majority of first instance judges have benefits. “A privilege is having millions to invest in a resort,” he says.
Is there any type of prohibition on unionization and strikes by magistrates? Was the creation of Sindmagis questioned formally or informally?
Formally, we were never questioned. Despite being bureaucratic, the procedure followed everything the law stipulated. The Constitution is clear. It guarantees the right to unionize for any worker. The only category that cannot strike is the military, but they can form unions. There is no prohibition for our category of judges. The strike can only be declared by the category, by the base, and not by the union itself.
In the week of Minister Flávio Dino’s decision on , there was a rehearsal of , with some coordination in the cancellation of hearings. Did the union follow?
In reality, what happened were not orchestrated attitudes. These were spontaneous reactions from magistrates who saw their salaries cut. Imagine that you earn R$10,000 a month, and your employer decides that from today onwards you earn R$5,000 or R$4,000. You are stunned. They were spontaneous reactions.
How much is the total number of union members today?
I prefer not to disclose this information. Our union today, compared to large associations, has a tiny existence. Imagine, we only have four months of real existence.
What is the difference between the union and associations such as AMB (Association of Brazilian Magistrates), Ajufe (Association of Federal Judges of Brazil) and Anamatra (National Association of Labor Magistrates)?
The difference lies in representation itself, because article 8 of the Constitution says that a category can only be represented by its union. Traditional associations that have always existed only represent members. The union represents the entire category, whether they are members or not. We are responsible for this category before international bodies as well.
What is your assessment of , who was a career judge, limiting compensation funds and ending compulsory retirement?
Minister Dino is acting as expected, because he is a politician. He is acting in what is best for his interests and not as a minister of the STF. He has a political project and intends to run for President of the Republic. At least that’s what’s behind the scenes in Brasília. He didn’t have a legal discussion, he didn’t talk about the process. He wants to be the new hunter of maharajas, the new [Fernando] Collor.
He should, since he preaches morality so much, resign from office. Ordinary magistrates have to undergo quarantine when they want to return to law. No one has so far questioned whether these ministers should not undergo quarantine before assuming any political or public post after the STF.
Corrected since 2003 by the IPCA, the constitutional ceiling would be. It is common for the compensation sums added to the salary to significantly exceed this amount.
When we discuss compensation, we are not talking about salary, but rather what you are entitled to and that was not paid at the time. Now, the Brazilian State is saying: “I must, I don’t deny it, I won’t pay”. This discussion did not cover judges, it did not cover prosecutors.
All STF ministers have already received these funds that will no longer be paid to the lower courts. Let’s get back to the real discussion, because they are trying to take the attention away from themselves.
Minister of the STF who has R$150 million to invest in a resort lives on subsidies? He has the office of a wife who received millions from . Minister does not survive on subsidies, he survives on a political level.
That’s what we at the union are saying: no more hypocrisy. Moralization only for others? Let’s stop this.
Don’t you think that a well-conducted debate on compensation funds is yet another attempt to control the privileges of state political elites that are very present in the history of Brazil?
Every type of privilege must be fought. But what is a privilege? What is called combating privilege is, for example, combating what I, as a judge, after 18 years of service to my country, recognized. Is this a privilege? Or is this recognition of what I am entitled to? In my view, privilege is receiving what you don’t deserve. So, privilege for me is really that you discuss all forms of abuse of power.
Sindmagis defends the appointment of a career judge for the vacancy at the STF. Why shouldn’t the union’s position be read as corporatism?
Every court in the country is also made up of members from other careers, such as lawyers and members of the . However, every court has members from the judiciary and a fifth of its composition from outside members. In the STF, the only career member is the minister.
We want it to, at the very least, be on par with the composition of other courts, as set out in the Constitution. The career magistrate’s vision of due legal process is missing, of what broad defense and contradiction are.
Careers linked to the Federal Court the number of days off per year. With the limitation of financial transfers, does the judiciary tend to seek new benefits?
The vacations of federal magistrates are based on art. 93 of the Constitution, in Loman (Organic Law of the National Judiciary) and in the symmetry regime recognized by the STF between the judiciary and the MP. The resolution only regulated the splitting of the 60 annual vacation days, allowing minimum installments of five days, without extending the total rest period.
There is no legal possibility of exceeding the 60 days of annual vacation, as the fractionation only changes the form of enjoyment, and not the number of days guaranteed.
As for the search for new benefits, the basic and most urgent one is readjusting the subsidy based on inflation measured in the period. We do not want privilege, but just that justice is also applied to us, magistrates.
X-RAY | Cyntia Cordeiro Santos, 52
Substitute judge of the TRT-5 (Regional Labor Court of the 5th Region), she is currently at the 2nd Labor Court of Vitória da Conquista (BA). With a bachelor’s degree from the Catholic University of Salvador and a master’s degree from Centro Universitário Faculdade Guanambi, she is the first president of Sindimagis (Brazilian Magistrates’ Union).
