10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10776
Social distancing rules in Brazil in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the paralysis of most economic activities. Measures were taken to provide support for maintenance of income and employment and to guarantee a minimum income for informal workers. Health and safety protections for healthcare and essential services workers received very minimal attention.
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Eduardo Rocha Dias
Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Minimum income
COVID-19 and Labour Law: Brazil
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National Reports
2020-04-15
2020-04-14
2020-04-15
2020-09-15
ILLeJ
Eduardo Rocha Dias
2020/04/15
10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10776
University of Fortaleza
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Minimum income
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Brazil
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COVID-19 and Labour Law: Brazil                                                   Italian Labour Law e-Journal
Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, Eduardo Rocha Dias                                   Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
avmgomes@gmail.com                                                 Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                               ISSN 1561-8048
                                                                https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10776




                    COVID-19 and Labour Law: Brazil
               Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, Eduardo Rocha Dias*


                                                 Abstract

     Social distancing rules in Brazil in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in the
     paralysis of most economic activities. Measures were taken to provide support for
     maintenance of income and employment and to guarantee a minimum income for informal
     workers. Health and safety protections for healthcare and essential services workers received
     very minimal attention.
     Keywords: Covid-19; Labour Law; Income preservation benefit; Job stability; Minimum
     income.




    On February 6, 2020, Federal Law #13,979 declared the Covid-19 pandemic a public
 health emergency, allowing provinces to determine social isolation and quarantine rules1. In
 addition, legislative Decree #6, from March 3rd, 2020, declared a state of public calamity,
 which allows the government to exceed its budgets under the Fiscal Responsibility Law2.
 All provinces have closed schools/universities and allowed only for essential services to
 continue to operate3. Any absence from work due to health emergency measures are
 considered to be justified under Law #13,979.
    Social isolation has resulted in disruption of business operations in both formal and
 informal economies, increasing unemployment. In order to counteract these effects, the
 government has adopted three Provincial Decrees (PDs) for formal workers: #927, March
 22, 20204; #936, April 1, 20205, and #946, April 7, 20206. All these decrees also cover
 domestic employees where applicable.

 *
   Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, Professor of Labour Law, University of Fortaleza, https://orcid.org/0000-
 0001-6101-4965; Eduardo Rocha Dias, Professor of Social Security, University of Fortaleza, Brazil and
 Attorney at the General Attorney´s Office of Brazil, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0972-354X.
 1
   Available at: < http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/lei-n-13.979-de-6-de-fevereiro-de-2020-242078735>.
 The Law is regulated by the Ministry of Health Decree Portaria # 356, from March 11, 2020. Available at: <
 http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/portaria-n-356-de-11-de-marco-de-2020-247538346>
 2
   Available at: < https://legis.senado.leg.br/norma/31993957>.
 3 Essential services are defined by Decrees 10,282, from March 20, 2020, and 10,288, from March 22, 2020.

 Provisional Decree (PD) #926, from March 20, 2020, allows the movement of workers in essential public
 services and private activities.
 4 Available at: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv927.htm.

 5 Available at: < http://www.planalto.gov.br/CCIVIL_03/_Ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv936.htm>.

 6-Available     at:< http://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/medida-provisoria-n-946-de-7-de-abril-de-2020-
 251562794>.
    Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes,                                                   Italian Labour Law e-Journal
    Eduardo Rocha Dias                                                           Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                    Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                      Section: National Reports




   PD #927 allows changes in the labour contract through individual negotiation
concerning: adoption of teleworking7; anticipation of individual vacations and holidays;
concession of collective vacations; compensation of hours; and deferral of payment of the
employers’ contribution for the Severance Pay Fund – FGTS. PD #946 allows workers to
withdraw from their FGTS a lumpsum amount of US$200.50. The goal of these changes is
to reduce the burden on companies and to facilitate teleworking during social distancing
rules.
   There are no specific protections for health and safety of healthcare workers8. On the
contrary, PD #927 allows for employers to interrupt the vacation of these workers and to
extend their working hours.
   PD #936 complements the previous decree, establishing the payment of an Emergency
Employment and Income Preservation Benefit - EEIPB; allowing a proportional reduction
of working hours and wages for a maximum period of 90 days; and a temporary suspension
of the employment contract for a maximum period of 60 days (which can be divided in two
periods of 30 days). The EEIPB will be paid by the Federal Government to employees
whose work hours have been reduced or their contract suspended. In these cases, the
employer can supplement EEIPB payments with a monthly amount that is legally not a
wage9. The receipt of EEIPB payments will not reduce unemployment benefits in the
future. The hours can be reduced by 25%, 50% or 75%10. The EEIPB payments are
calculated on the same basis as the unemployment insurance.
   In the case of suspension of the employment contract, the employee is entitled to all the
benefits conceded by the employer, such as, private medical insurance and contributions to
social security. Workers who have their hours and waged reduced or their employment
contract suspended have job stability guaranteed for the period of the reduction or
suspension and, for an equal period beyond.
   Under PD#936, the reduction of hours and wages can be negotiated directly between
employer and workers in two cases: when the worker’s monthly wage is below US$617 or
above US$2,403. The employment contract can be suspended by individual negotiation, if
the employer’s gross revenue exceeds US$945,000. These rules were considered
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a provisional decision on 6 April 2020. The
Court argued that PD936 violates the constitutional rule that establishes irreducibility of

7 In the public sector, worker with sixty years old or more; immunodeficient or with chronic or severe pre-
existing diseases; and responsible for the care of one or more people with suspected or confirmed diagnosis
of COVID-19 infection, provided there is cohabitation; pregnant or lactating are allowed to teleworking
(Instruçao Normativa 21, March 16, 2020).
8 In March 27, 2020, the Ministry of Economy issue a general orientation for workers and employers due to

the Covid-19 pandemic. Available at: < http://www.previc.gov.br/regulacao/normas/oficio-
circular/2020/sei_19962-100067_2020_55-pdf-pdf.pdf/view>.
9 Employers that earned, in 2019, gross revenue exceeding US$945,000, can only suspend the employment

contract of its employees by paying monthly compensatory aid in the amount of thirty percent of the
employee's wage, during the period of suspension.
10 PD #936 allows different percentages of hours and wage reduction through collective bargaining, but in

this case the amount of the EEIPB will be inferior than if adopted the percentages already established by the
decree.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10776                                                                   2
 Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes,                                                     Italian Labour Law e-Journal
 Eduardo Rocha Dias                                                             Special Issue 1, Vol. 13 (2020)
                                                                   Covid-19 and Labour Law. A Global Review
                                                                                     Section: National Reports




wages, except through collective bargaining (Federal Constitution, Article 7o, Line VI).
According to the Court: “uncertainties of the moment lived cannot allow the uncritical
adoption of any measures that promise to keep jobs, even if well intentioned, above all, if
they hurt - as they do seem to do – the constitutional and legal status of the country”11.
    Informal workers are not covered by these decrees, even though they constitute more
than 45% of the labour force. To address this gap, Law #13,982, April 2, 2020, provides
benefits of roughly USD118 per month for three months, to informal low-income
workers12.
    Up to two persons per family can receive the benefit. The cumulative requirements are:
a) to be a worker over eighteen years old; b) not have a formal job; c) not receive a social
security or any other federal benefit, or unemployment insurance or a federal income
transfer program benefit, with the exception of bolsa familia13; d) a family income per capita
of up to half the minimum wage14 or total monthly family income of up to three minimum
wages; e) not having received, in 2018, taxable income above R$ 28,559.70; and e) work as
an individual microentrepreneur (MEI), or an individual contributor to the General Social
Security System, or who is an informal worker.
    Informal workers might be employed, self-employed or unemployed, intermittently
employed, domestic workers, and be registered in the Single Registry for Social Programs
of the Federal Government (CadÚnico) or who meet the requirement described in (d)
above through self-declaration.
    The expectation is that around 59.2 million individuals are eligible for the benefit.
Around 80% of those eligible are already registered: 30% of whom are beneficiaries of the
bolsa familia and the remainder are registered in the CadÚnico15. For the workers who are
not in any of these registers, a digital platform (CAIXA|Auxílio Emergencial) is provided
for self-declaration mentioned above.
    These decrees provide for a fairly comprehensive coverage of all workers, formal and
informal, even though the amount of support provided can be debated and social dialogue
is being ignored in favour of individual bilateral bargaining. A glaring gap is the lack of
safety and health protections for workers in essential services including healthcare.




Copyright © 2020 Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, Eduardo Rocha Dias. This article is
released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

11Supremo   Tribunal Federal. ADI 6363.
Available at: < http://www.stf.jus.br/portal/cms/verNoticiaDetalhe.asp?idConteudo=440927.
12 This period may be extended by a Federal Government act.

13 Low-income family support.

14 Minimum wage in Brazil is around US$206.
15 Souza et al. Estimativas de público elegível e custos do benefício emergencial criado pelo PL 9.236/2017.

IPEA, Nota Técnica 60, Março 2020.
Available at:
< https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35416&Itemid=9>.

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1561-8048/10776                                                                  3
