The hiring of persons with disabilities is an important subject that companies should be aware of. The Office of the Attorney General of the Union (AGU) obtained, in the Labor Courts, a decision favorable to a R$ 50,000 fine imposed on the National Electric System Operator (ONS). The entity was penalized for failing to comply with the rule that provides for the hiring of a minimum number of persons with disabilities or rehabilitated persons by companies with more than one hundred employees.
The notice of infraction drawn up by the inspection division of the Ministry of Labor in 2013 found that the ONS had not demonstrated that it had 22 employees with disabilities on its staff. This would be the minimum number of persons hired under this condition for an entity of its size, in accordance with the criteria provided for in Article 93 of Law No. 8,213/1991.
Challenged through administrative channels, the fine was upheld by the Regional Superintendence of Labor and Employment in the Federal District. The ONS then filed an action seeking to annul the notice of infraction and to prevent the debt from being entered as outstanding tax debt. The entity claimed it had difficulty filling the minimum quota of its positions with persons with disabilities or rehabilitated persons on account of the specialized nature and complexity of its activities.
The claim was denied at first instance, but the entity appealed to the Regional Labor Court of the 10th Region, reiterating its initial arguments. At the time, the ONS had on its staff 786 employees at the higher, technical, and administrative levels and under a trainee scheme.
Defense of the inspection — The Regional Prosecutor’s Office of the Union of the 1st Region (PRU1) defended the legitimacy of the fine imposed by the labor auditors. According to the AGU unit, the failure to observe the rule occurred over a long period of time, as shown by the entity’s own documentation submitted in the case records.
The Union’s attorneys further stated that the ONS did not even meet one quarter of the quota required by law. For this reason, annulling the infraction, as the entity intended, would offend the rule in its purpose of ensuring the inclusion in the labor market of professionals with special needs.
In analyzing the appeal, the 18th Labor Court of Brasília agreed with the Union’s attorneys and ruled the ONS’s claims entirely unfounded. The judgment upheld the penalty imposed, considering that the entity failed to demonstrate that it had adopted measures to give effect to the legal precept. The PRU1 is a unit of the Office of the Attorney General of the Union, a body of the AGU.
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