Workers should not have the right to reject union contributions

For the Minister of Labor and Employment, Luiz Marinho, the worker should not have the individual right to reject the mandatory union contribution. He argued that in a collective organization, decisions must be made in the same way.

Currently, if the worker does not want to be deducted from the payroll, he can send a letter to the union informing that he does not wish to collaborate with the so-called Union Contribution.

“The decision, in my opinion, should be taken at workers’ and employers’ assemblies, they decide. Therefore, there would be no individual right to send a ‘letter’, for example, refusing to contribute. Why would this worker give up the benefits of the collective agreement? Increasing wages, social clauses, labor protection? Obviously not,” said the minister in an interview with CNN.

The head of the department compared the individual decision of workers with the companies’ contribution to System S — mandatory for companies.

“Companies can also say: ‘I don’t want to contribute to System S’, for example? Evidently not,” she argued. Furthermore, he claimed that the decision to refuse on an individual basis is neither “legitimate” nor “democratic”.

He also defended the return of the Negotiable Contribution and announced that the government should send the proposal to Congress. “Today, there is a process of conversations and dialogues with employers’ confederations and trade unions. The government is coordinating the process so that there is an agreement. What is under debate is to adjust how the right to oppose would be given to workers who, eventually, disagree”, he detailed.

Minister denied return of union tax

In October last year, Marinho ruled out the return of the mandatory union tax when participating in a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies. “The union tax is over and will not come back”, reinforced the Minister of Labor. “What is being debated is the possibility of a negotiating contribution, as long as the assembly deliberates and approves it, therefore it will not be mandatory,” he continued.

The mandatory union tax – equivalent to one day’s work, deducted annually – was abolished by the labor reform approved by Congress in 2017. As a result, employee contributions became optional.