Abstract
This chapter analyzes the deconstruction of labor rights in Brazil. Our hypothesis is that the labor reforms operated since 2017, under the governments of Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro, act mainly as a direct attack on the democratic pillars of corporatism. Following this hypothesis, the chapter develops the following points: in the field of historical reflection, it investigates the relevance of corporatism and its meaning for labor rights and the existence of Welfare States in Brazil. The second, at the level of political theory, requires a foundation of how reformist changes can be considered anti-corporatist and to what extent they attack the public and collective sense of labor contracting in the country.
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Notes
- 1.
The Consolidation of Labor Laws, promulgated by Decree-Law No. 5,452/1943, has as its founding premise the protection of the social value of labor, from which it establishes the rules that regulate individual and collective labor relations–housing the parameters of the regulation of unions and the functioning of the Labor Court in Brazil.
- 2.
As Lijphart (1999) pointed out, rather than suggesting a country of fascist experience, this condition was recognized even in Switzerland. Quoting Lehbruch, the author points out that “the strength of leadership associations in Switzerland is remarkable, and it is almost a consensus that the cohesion of Swiss interest associations is superior to that of political parties in that country” (Lehbruch, 1993 as cited in Lijphart, 1999, p. 52).
- 3.
The period between 1930 and 1946 is usually recognized as the first step in the establishment of the Vargas Era. After this period, Getúlio Vargas returned to the country’s presidency in the 1954 election but did not complete his term, committing suicide in 1956. To understand its undeniable influence on national life, see the book Ex-Leviatã Brasileiro [The Former Brazilian Leviathan], by Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos (2006).
- 4.
The “certificate of ideology” was a document issued by the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS) to various associations of political representation, such as political parties, student organizations, trade unions, and others; it was waived in 1952 (Gomes, 1988). The “union letter” is the registration made with the official body that grants the status of legal entity to the collective representation of workers in a professional category.
- 5.
Modernization theories have become an interpretive paradigm, a standard of predictive analysis of Western modernity in different societies. In its theoretical polysemy, the modernization of countries combined the deepening of market economies, translated by urbanization, industrialization, and cultural de-traditionalization, from which one can infer a possible evolution toward a democratic, liberal, and rational state.
- 6.
In the same vein, Law 4,302/1998 aimed to amend the provisions of Law No. 6,019 of 1974, extending the temporary employment contract in companies.
- 7.
By consulting 523 companies in the industry, the report recorded that among the companies that used precarious types of contracts, 85% said they intended to hire intermittent workers the following year.
- 8.
Still within the scope of Supplementary Bill (PLC) 38/2017, in companies with more than 200 employees, the mandatory presence of the union for the termination of contracts and the creation of Representative Committees at the workplace was simply revoked. In 2022, the STF partially revoked this aspect of the Labor Reform, recognizing that union intervention prior to the mass dismissal of workers is essential. However, this does not mean that these dismissals must undergo union authorization or even a final agreement. It is merely a requirement to begin negotiations with the employer.
- 9.
The union contribution or tax was instituted in the CLT in 1943. In 2018, after judging the constitutionality of the 2017 Labor Reform, the STF declared the legality of the extinction of its obligatory payment.
- 10.
It is important to document that in the CLT formation debate, in the distant 1930s, the union tax was supported by employers’ segments in exchange for the guarantee that unions would not be legally allowed to build their representation within companies (Santos, 2015).
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Teodoro, R. (2023). Labor Reforms and the Crisis of Democratic Corporatism. In: Fleury, S. (eds) Social Policy Dismantling and De-democratization in Brazil. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35110-5_3
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