“We, the reds, have a cause”, says president of the TST

“We reds have cause“, said the president of the Superior Labor Court, minister Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho, during an event on labor justice, on May 1, Labor Day. He declared that he has no concerns about “the blue ones”.

The statement was made while Mello Filho defended the TST’s actions in preventing job insecurity. The President of the Court said that “not discouraged” and who has the desire to fight for labor justice, an area he has been working in for 40 years, according to him.

Watch the video (5min17s):

📹 “We, the reds, have a cause”, says president of the TST

🔴The president of the Superior Labor Court, minister Luiz Philippe Vieira de Mello Filho, said “we reds have a case” during an event on labor justice on May 1st.

👇Watch the video:

— Poder360 (@Poder360)

The president of the TST said that “there is no blue or red judge” He argued that differences of thought must work to strengthen and grow labor justice.

“I would say that there is no blue or red. There are those who are interested and there are those who have a cause. We, reds, have a cause. We have no interest. And let this be very clear. […] We have a cause, and they should be bothered by our cause, because we will be fighting all the time in defense of our institution”he said. He was applauded by the audience.

Mello Filho said that it is the TST’s role to limit the “wild and unbridled capitalism”. He criticized the precariousness of work and employment “platformized” –on digital platforms. He defended the end of the 6 It was the 22nd edition, promoted by Anamatra (National Association of Labor Justice Magistrates).

“We don’t have a liberal Constitution. We don’t have 11 constitutions. We have one Constitution, and that Constitution is social democratic. Whether you like it or not”said Mello Filho.

For him, the court’s objectives are to build social justice, promote an inclusive economy and combat social inequalities. The president of the court said that the Constitution gave the TST power to protect the most vulnerable and that there must be a balance between the forces of labor and the forces of capital.

According to the president of the Labor Court, transformations in the economy and technology create challenges that need to be faced “responsively“. Mello Filho denied that the court is an obstacle to Brazil’s socioeconomic development. He said that this argument from those who criticize the Court is a “fallacy” and suggested that “labor legal flat earthing” cannot support itself.

LABOR MARKET

The president of the TST criticized the unrestricted outsourcing of work. He stated that Brazil is witnessing a “disqualification of core business activities”. Mello Filho stated that companies in the health and educational areas are dismissing experienced employees to hire young people who have lower pay. According to him, there are companies that are led by criminal factions and other illicit entities.

“When we talk about this precariousness, like flexible forms, they completely remove the protective character that was a construction. […] This country was built with the CLT. This country was built through labor protection.”these.

For the president of the TST, the weakening of workers’ unions after the labor reform in 2017 contributed to the precariousness of labor relations.

“They [os sindicatos] are fundamental. [São] Legitimate unions they represent. They are extremely important for the regulation of capital and also labor”he declared.

Pejotization – the practice of hiring workers as legal entities to perform typical employee functions – is the recognition of “fraud“, according to the president of the TST. He declared that the practice is the “escape from labor regulation” and the “breach of the Constitution”. Employers seek to reduce labor and social security costs with pejotization.

He defended regulation to recognize these employment relationships in the correct way, as works in the CLT. In addition to contributing to the disruption of labor rights, companies that use pejotization have unfair advantages over companies that follow the rules. They also create a “luck” tax that feeds old age, illness, accidents and motherhood without State protection.

Data from FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas) estimates that 5.5 million workers stopped being CLT holders (hired under CLT rules) and became PJs from January 2022 to July 2025. The negative balance in public accounts was R$70.26 billion.

“Pejotização is fraud. It is masking what is happening in reality”these. “This has been happening for 10 years. Nobody does anything. These people don’t matter. What matters are ideological discussions, they are mechanisms of economic pressure”he completed.

SCALE 6 X 1

The minister defended the end of the 6 x 1 scale, the most common work regime in Brazil, especially in commerce and services. The worker works 6 days to be entitled to 1 day off with pay. The 1988 Constitution limits working hours to 44 hours per week, but does not prohibit this shift format.

Currently, 3 PECs (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution) related to the topic are being processed in the legislative houses. Two were added and are in the Chamber’s special committee on the topic. The other is stopped in the Senate. Read more .

For Mello Filho, critics of the proposed change in working hours use the same “rhetorical treatment” for labor rights currently in force.

“When paid weekly rest, vacations, the third of vacations, the 13th [salário]the rhetorical treatment was the same as what we are seeing today. It doesn’t change anything”said the president of the TST.

He declared that the end of the 6 X 1 scale measure is about inclusive economy and circulating income. “When we guarantee these social rights we prevent corporations from becoming models of domination”said Mello Filho. “We are talking about civility, citizenship, a socially fair country”he completed.

LGBTQIAP+ POPULATION

The TST president said that a study by the University of Massachusetts, called “The relationship between LGBT inclusion and economic development: macro-level evidence”, showed that there was a relationship between the social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and economic development.

Mello Filho declared that the exclusion of the LGBTQIAP+ community creates economic losses, loss of productivity and underinvestment in human capital. “We need to talk about an inclusive economy when we talk about labor law”these.