Government overturns injunction that prevented the publication of salary reports

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) managed this Wednesday (26), through the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), to overturn an injunction issued by the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais (Fiemg) that exempted companies from disclosing the biannual report on transparency and pay equality between men and women.

The Minas Gerais federation had the favorable decision of the Federal Regional Court of the 6th Region (TRF6) reversed by the president of the Court itself, judge Monica Jacqueline Sifuentes. The judge accepted the AGU’s arguments that there is no harm to intimacy and privacy in the reports, as the names and individual data of each employee are not disclosed.

For her, the Equal Pay Law “reflects the commitment of the constitutional text to promote not only formal equality, but also substantial equality, through public policies that seek to balance existing gender disparities in society, being the power-duty of the State promotes an environment of social justice and equity”, according to the AGU.

The government body also stated that the standards established by the legislation were drawn up with the participation of business confederations and that the injunction “could not only compromise the quality of the data, but the purpose of the public policy itself”.

Judge Lincoln Rodrigues de Faria, from the 4th Panel of the TRF6, who had granted the injunction on the 22nd, considered that the rule put at risk the “fundamental right to the protection of employees’ personal data and the values ​​of the economic order, embodied in the basis of free enterprise and the principle of free competition”.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) released last Monday (25) the first Salary Transparency and Criteria Report, in which it was pointed out that there was a salary difference of 19.4% between men and women, indicating that, in managerial and managers, the variation can reach 25.2%. This difference rises to 27.9% between black men and women.

The survey covers information provided by 49,500 companies with 100 or more employees. The deadline for publication of reports by companies is March 31st.

In case of non-compliance, fines of up to 3% of the payroll value may be applied, limited to 100 minimum wages.