With Dino’s vote, the STF has a majority to maintain Petrobras’ victory against a billion-dollar fine

With the vote of Minister Flávio Dino, the First Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) formed a majority this Tuesday (27) to maintain the decision that freed Petrobras from a billion-dollar sentence imposed by the Labor Court. The state-owned company estimates the value of the fine at around R$40 billion. The trial takes place in the virtual plenary and will end this Friday (1st).

The action involves the calculation of additional payments after the collective agreement that established the Minimum Remuneration by Level and Region (RMNR). The First Panel is made up of ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux, Cristiano Zanin and the recently installed Flávio Dino. Therefore, with three votes in the same direction, a majority is formed.

Moraes, who is the rapporteur of the case, voted against the embargoes for declaration presented by the unions. Dino and Cármen Lúcia followed the rapporteur’s understanding. There are still votes from Fux and Zanin.

The process discusses the inclusion or not of additional payments such as dangerous work, confinement or night work in the calculation of the Minimum Remuneration by Level and Regime (RMNR), a type of salary floor that was created in a 2007 labor agreement to promote equality. between workers’ salaries.

The payment was recognized by the Superior Labor Court (TST) in 2018, which accepted a lawsuit filed by employees questioning the remuneration calculation formula. However, the TST’s decision was suspended by an injunction issued by Moraes in the same year. According to the TST’s understanding, around 51 thousand workers would be entitled to additional additions to the RMNR payment.

According to the category’s unions, the model serves to differentiate between employees who provide administrative services and those who work in refineries or on oil platforms, the company said. Brazil Agency. In November last year, the collegiate had already overturned the Labor Court’s decision.

Now, the First Panel analyzes the appeals presented against the decision. Moraes highlighted in his vote that “there is no omission regarding the labor rights recognized by the Constitution” and highlighted that “there was frank negotiation with the unions” in the embargoed decision.