Already honored by , judges and members of the team have relaxed the rules for splitting the rest period so that they can take six months off per year – a number that can be increased by other licenses created. The change also makes it possible to increase compensation payments without giving up long rest periods.
The benefit contrasts with that of private sector workers. An employee on the 6×1 scale, who works through a PEC (Proposed Amendment to the Constitution), has 78 days off per year. A federal judge or prosecutor can spend 178 days without working – 128% more. An employee on a 5×2 journey has 124 days of rest annually.
The account, made by Sheetdoes not take into account holidays, which vary from year to year, and leaves of absence that can increase the days not worked by magistrates and prosecutors. Organizations that monitor the Judiciary and the Public Ministry point out the risk that the use of time off will be intensified after the (Supreme Federal Court) of these careers at R$ 33 thousand per month, in addition to the .
“There is a fear that they will make a very specific interpretation, of failing to pay the compensatory leave in cash and turning it into rest. It’s almost as if you had a strike, a sluggish operation, with maximum enjoyment of the rest privileges of these careers to compensate for a financial loss”, says the project coordinator at Transparência Brasil, Cristiano Pavini.
Even before the STF’s decision, the (Attorney General’s Office) and the CJF (Federal Justice Council) approved last year the possibility of the 60-day payments being divided into up to 12 periods of five days each, which allows two weekends and holidays to be combined to optimize the use of time off and avoid overlapping with Saturdays and Sundays. The division only applies to prosecutors and magistrates.
Added to the 104 Saturdays and Sundays and the 18 days of forensic recess (of which 4 to 6 days coincide with weekends, depending on the year), the 60 days of consecutive vacation will allow them to take 178 days off per year and work only 187 – practically one day of rest for each day of work.
The possibility of taking vacations without overlapping with weekends can also serve to enhance your own remuneration. A judge from Pernambuco with a salary of R$33,689.11, for example, with compensation for unused vacations.
When combined with four days of the weekend, the previous and the following, the magistrate or prosecutor will in practice have nine days off, but will only have the discount of five vacation days. This way, you can take vacation 12 times a year or sell up to 20 days to increase your salary and still have more time off than other workers.
Furthermore, the STF authorized up to 30 days of vacation when not used within a period of one year. This amount is free of income tax.
The change approved by the CJF and the PGR last year also has a loophole and does not prohibit vacations from being used in periods of five days in consecutive weeks, just skipping the weekend so as not to have a “loss of days” of rest. Until then, prosecutors had to divide their vacations into a maximum of six periods of ten days and federal judges, in two periods of 30 days each.
A Sheet asked the CJF and PGR a month ago about whether there is any closure on this loophole, but received no response.
A worker hired by the CLT can divide their vacation into up to three installments, as long as one of them has at least 14 calendar days (which means that part of it coincides with weekends). The other two periods cannot be less than five days each, but the company can establish its own floor.
Larger installments represent a privilege in relation to part of the Judiciary itself. In the case of civil servants, the (National Council of Justice) determines that the 30-day vacation must be taken in a maximum of three periods. For judges, it allowed each court to establish its own rule.
When questioned, the CNJ stated that it is up to each court to define the rules for vacations. The PGR did not comment on the flexibility of vacations and only stated that the issued ordinance “followed the change promoted by the Federal Court”. The CJF was contacted three times in the last month and did not respond.
The splitting of vacations is not the only benefit in relation to the private sector. The CNJ approved in 2024 that vacations will be suspended due to leave due to illness in a family member or for the judge’s own health treatment, birth of a child or adoption, accident on duty or death of a spouse or family member, even when the judge is already in the middle of them.
In the private sector, licenses only suspend the enjoyment of vacations if they occur before the start of the rest period.
The days off for judges and prosecutors can also be increased by other benefits created by them, such as compensatory leave due to the accumulation of duties (one day off for every three worked) and the call on federal magistrates to work remotely on projects in other regions of the Federal Court (two days off for each week of work).
Pavini, from Transparência Brasil, states that it is necessary to be aware of a “potential risk” of the STF’s decision that eliminated part of the allowances and limited them to 35% of the salary: the use of breaks as an instrument of pressure for the return of payment of licenses in cash so as not to paralyze the public service. “AND essential that the CNJ and CNMP [Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público] act in control of these privileges and not as guarantor unions”, he says.
