The plenary of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) ruled last Thursday (30), by 7 votes to 4, that the use of outsourced workers in companies’ core activities is constitutional.
This had already been permitted since last year, when President Michel Temer enacted the labor reform law, which allows the outsourcing of both so-called ancillary activities (cleaning and security services in an IT company, for example) and core activities.
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But there was an impasse regarding 4,000 lawsuits predating the labor reform law that challenged the position of the Superior Labor Court (TST), in force since 2011, under which it was prohibited to outsource the core activity. G1 stresses that now, these lawsuits, which are pending at various instances of the Judiciary, must have a definitive result favorable to the companies.
For the majority of the STF justices, the choice of outsourcing is a right of the company, which may choose the most convenient business model in respect of the constitutional principle of free enterprise. According to the majority’s understanding, outsourcing does not lead to the precarization of labor relations.
The Supreme Court’s decision was rendered in the ruling on two actions brought by businesspeople who sought the overturning of the TST decisions that prohibited the outsourcing of core activities.
In the ruling, the STF justices upheld another position of the TST — that a company that outsources will be held liable in the event of non-payment of labor rights by the labor-supplying company.
The Supreme Court also decided that the ruling applies only to cases currently pending in the Judiciary that are still awaiting a decision or appeal.
In other words, the understanding that considers the outsourcing of core activity constitutional will not allow the reopening of proceedings that have already become final and unappealable (that is, in which no further appeal is possible, even if the companies have eventually been penalized).
The STF ruling is subject to so-called “motions for clarification” (embargos de declaração), appeals that serve to clarify points of the decision. This appeal may only be filed after the publication of the ruling’s outcome — under the rules of procedure, this must occur within two months.
Source: G1
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