The Labor Reform made more than 100 changes to the CLT. However, none of them has had greater repercussions than the change to the compulsory nature of union dues.
Although it does not affect workers’ daily lives — its effect being felt only through the deduction of one day’s pay in March each year — the amendment of articles 545, 578, 579, 582, 583, 587 and 602 of the CLT has stirred the Labor Courts as seldom seen before.
Arguing that the Labor Reform is unconstitutional in this respect, a large number of lawsuits, all with requests for urgent relief, have revealed the multiplicity of possible understandings in the Courts, even though the central issue is just one: whether a Complementary Law is required to change the compulsory nature of union dues or whether this can be done through an Ordinary Law.
Albeit on a case-by-case basis, the General Inspectorate of Labor Justice, through Justice Lélio Bentes, has been suspending all decisions that, still on a preliminary basis, ordered union dues to be deducted and paid to the Unions.
More than 20 Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality have already been filed with the STF challenging the constitutionality of the Labor Reform in this respect, some with requests for an interim declaration that the Law is unconstitutional.
On 05.30.2018, Justice Edson Fachin, reporting justice of the ADIs seeking, through concentrated constitutional review, a declaration that the change made by the Labor Reform to the previously mandatory union dues is unconstitutional, made his position on the matter clear, stating that: “for logical and systematic reasons, with regard to the fumus boni juris, there are relevant grounds for granting the injunction.”
Although convinced that optional payment of union dues is unconstitutional, Justice Edson Fachin, while not categorically ruling out the possibility of an interim declaration of unconstitutionality of a legal rule by a single justice, decided to let the matter be resolved promptly by the full STF plenary, especially since the judgment of the ADIs was scheduled for the session on 06.28.2018.
Despite this stated opposition to the legislative change as made by the Labor Reform, another 10 votes are still needed for the matter to be definitively decided. Whether through a declaration of constitutionality or the return of the compulsory nature of union dues, the matter urgently needs to be settled, for the sake of legal certainty.
