The Ministry of Labor wants to ensure that the accused companies have a full right of defense and bars publication of the document based on a decision by the Superior Labor Court. The Public Prosecutor's Office will appeal.
The Ministry of Labor wants to ensure that the accused companies have a full right of defense and bars publication of the document based on a decision by the Superior Labor Court. The Public Prosecutor's Office will appeal.
The federal government won a legal round on Tuesday (07/03) which, in practice, should prevent society from knowing for the next four months who are the employers in Brazil caught and punished for using workers in conditions analogous to slavery and registered on the so-called "dirty list" of slave labor. The list was created in 2003 and is internationally supported.
In the government of President Michel Temer (PMDB), the Ministry of Labor (MT) holds the view that the current rules that determine the inclusion of names on the list "do not guarantee the right to an adversarial proceeding and a full defense for those accused of a crime, which would give rise to new legal challenges". This argument is confronted by the Labor Prosecutor's Office (MPT), and the battle has reached the courts.
The president of the Superior Labor Court (TST), Ives Gandra Martins, decided on Tuesday that the federal government is right. He accepted the arguments of the Federal Attorney General's Office and overturned an injunction that obliged the Ministry of Labor to publish the "dirty list", under penalty of paying daily fines. Gandra Martins appeared on the Planalto Palace's shortlist for a seat on the Federal Supreme Court.
International commitment
"We're going to appeal. The 'dirty list' is an important instrument in the fight against contemporary slavery, and Brazil has made international commitments to combat slavery," says labor prosecutor Tiago Cavalcanti, national coordinator for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Conaete) of the Public Ministry of Labor.
For Cavalcanti, the federal government's argument that there is a curtailment of the accused's defense is "absurd", because once the slavery situation has been caught (infraction notice), the accused can still appeal administratively, in two instances. "The offender's name is only included on the list once there is no further appeal."
A week before the deadline given by the Regional Labor Court for the MT to publish the list expired, the ministry held the first meeting of a working group created to "establish clear rules for the inclusion of companies in the register, known as the 'dirty list', and to avoid the judicialization of the issue".
The AGU's argument, which convinced the president of the TST, is that this group needs 120 days to analyze the current rules and change them. The labor prosecutors say they were not invited by the federal government to this first meeting of the group, but they will participate in the discussions to understand exactly what the objectives of the debate are.
"What do you want to change about the 'dirty list'? Will the list be emptied? Is there going to be an emptying of the vision of slave labor?" asked Cavalcanti. According to the Ministry of Labor's press office, the group was created because "the government wants to guarantee that the rules will be transparent and fair in order to identify and disclose those who commit this type of crime".
Ordinance on the last day of the Dilma government
The current rules for including names on the "dirty list" are specified in an inter-ministerial ordinance published by the previous government on May 13, exactly the last day that then-president Dilma Rousseff (PT) was in office. The ordinance was reissued to clarify the procedures for including and removing names from the register.
Following the publication of this ordinance, the president of the Federal Supreme Court, Cármen Lúcia, extinguished an action before the court challenging the constitutionality of the "dirty list". This legal dispute had been preventing the publication of the document since December 2014.
Cavalcanti points out that the publication of the "dirty list" is a state policy, assumed by Brazil internationally, and that it cannot "suffer ideological or partisan variations". The measure, he emphasizes, was defended in public policies initiated by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso (PSDB) government and improved during the administrations of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Dilma Rousseff (PT). "In other words, it is independent of parties, political currents or ideologies."
The Supreme Court's decisions
At the end of 2014, the then president of the Supreme Court, Ricardo Lewandowski, granted an injunction preventing the publication of the "dirty list". The action was brought by the Brazilian Association of Real Estate Developers, which considered the register unconstitutional.
To remedy the problems pointed out, a new ordinance was issued by the government in the final minutes of Dilma's administration. However, even though the lawsuit was dismissed by the Supreme Court after the ordinance was reissued in May 2016, the Ministry of Labor refused to publish the list.
The labor prosecutors claim that there have been meetings and attempts to convince the current government. Without success, they had to knock on the doors of the Regional Labor Court.
The battle has no end date and, depending on its effects and repercussions, could reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Source: Deutsche Welle
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