Appellate Judge Gentil Pio de Oliveira, of the Regional Labor Court of the 18th Region (Goiás), released JBS from withholding its employees’ union dues. In his view, deducting union dues from employees’ paychecks and paying them over — made optional by the labor reform — causes harm that is difficult to remedy.

At first instance, the judge of the 18th Labor Court of Itumbiara had ordered the amounts to be deposited into a court account. According to the judge, ending mandatory payment is unconstitutional, but until the merits of the issue are resolved, the money must be set aside.

In granting the writ of mandamus, Appellate Judge Pio de Oliveira considered that the labor reform amended the CLT and, as a result, the prior and express authorization of employees is now required for the company to deduct union dues. With this change, the contribution, which was previously mandatory, became optional. JBS is represented in the case by attorney Luiz Fernando Plens de Quevedo, partner at Giamundo Neto Advogados

The appellate judge argues that “there is no plausibility to the right invoked by the Union/Co-party in the original action, since the law that amended article 582 of the CLT is in force”.

The decision is based on the Federal Constitution, which in its article 97 provides that “only by the vote of an absolute majority of their members or of the members of the respective special body may the courts declare a law or normative act of the Government unconstitutional.”

“Therefore, based on item III of article 7 of Law 12,016/09, I grant the injunction sought to suspend the effects of the decision issued, since the requirements for granting provisional urgent relief in the original action are not met“, the judge concludes.

Click here to read the court decision (in Portuguese).

Story by Fernanda Valente, originally published on 04.27.2018 in CONJUR (in Portuguese): https://www.conjur.com.br/2018-abr-27/desembargador-libera-jbs-reter-contribuicao-sindical