Outsourcing is the twin of slave labor, says Marinho – 04/12/2023 – Market

The outsourcing law in force in the country is the twin sister of slave labor and the 2017 reform brought a “perversity to the quality of the employment relationship”, said this Wednesday (12) Minister Luiz Marinho (Labor), at the Commission of Labor of the Chamber of Deputies.

The commission meeting had few interventions from the opposition and occurred without incident, in a completely different scenario from the one observed the day before with the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, at the House Security and Justice Commission.

Marinho made numerous criticisms of the 2017 reform over the two hours he was on the board. He described the changes approved during Michel Temer’s government as a tragedy and setback and cited the need to revisit points in the text, but without penning or repealing.

“The outsourcing law in the country today is the twin sister of slave labor. It created the possibility that anything goes, anything goes. This is something that needs to be considered,” said the minister.

The statements were made while the minister defended the need to frame the economic activities of apps and to study ways to protect workers on these platforms.

“It is not a simple thing to talk about the economic framework of the new activities that the new technologies bring, that the new mechanisms, that the evolution brings to the challenges of the labor market”, he said.

According to Marinho, it is necessary to evaluate a basket of possibilities in regulating work through apps. According to him, there is “a certain ideological bias” in the statements that some workers are “entrepreneurs” and do not want registration through the CLT.

The minister argues that when these workers are asked what they want with social protection, they answer “I want Social Security, I want 13th [salário]I want a vacation, I want a weekly rest.” “He’s wanting, therefore, the CLT,” said Marinho.

The minister said there was an “ultraneoliberal debate” rejecting the CLT. “There has been, in the recent history of the country, a real preaching against formal work. There was a real preaching for informality here”, he continued.

Marinho again denied any intention to revoke the 2017 text and stated that the government’s intention is to build a dialogue in labor relations, with “less intervention and more intermediation”. He defended that crucial points of the reform be reviewed, without mentioning which ones, and denied that the government is considering resuming the union tax.

During his participation, Marinho again criticized platforms like Uber and iFood. “Saying that it’s legal for a worker to have to work 16 hours a day in traffic in order to be able to take something home to support his children, that’s bordering on slave labor due to excessive working hours.”

In addition, he again said that, if these companies leave the country after the regulation, others will occupy the spaces left by them. “Some company would be welcome to bring an application and make it available to workers and workers without the bias of the absurd exploitation that iFood does, that Uber does in Brazil.”

The minister also spoke about the anniversary withdrawal of the FGTS (Guarantee Fund for Length of Service) and stated that the modality has serious problems, such as the weakening of the fund itself to finance housing and sanitation.

In addition, according to him, the change “created the possibility of the financial system’s spree”. “Today, of the BRL 504 billion deposited in the current account of FGTS account holders, we already have almost BRL 100 billion sold by banks in payroll loans from the guarantee fund based on the birthday withdrawal format”, he criticized. He also said that the government is discussing how to re-discuss this mechanism.

In the end, Marinho was questioned about the proposals being studied by the government for the appreciation of the minimum wage, among them the one to consider the GDP per capita in the annual increase above inflation.

“It’s one of the suggestions, among several. The government’s hammer has not yet been hammered on which it will be. We’re going to hit it with President Lula, as soon as he returns from China, so that we can sit down with the union centrals and do the final format.”