Head of Brazil's Superior Labor Court Calls for Labor Law Reform if Country Wants to Avoid Becoming Venezuela

02/17/2017 - 11h24

The head of Brazil's Superior Labor Court, Ives Gandra da Silva Martins Filho, called for a labor law reform on Thursday (16), fearing that the current model could destabilize Brazil's economy, just like Venezuela's.

The statement was issued at a public hearing that is discussing Temer's proposal on the issue, which includes the implementation of collective bargaining between employers and employees, despite current laws.

"We can't come up here and say that everything is bad, but that we should keep things as they are. If things continue the way they are, unemployment will rise, so we have to do something. (...) If we do not fix the issues surrounding labor laws, if nothing can be done to restructure our economy, things may destabilize to a point where we will be headed in the direction of Venezuela."

His statement was well received by the governing coalition's congressmen who were present at the session, and was booed by the opposition's.

The head of the Superior Labor Court has been calling for less government intervention in employer-employee relations, particularly when it comes to the judiciary.

According to him, the Superior Labor Court is guilty of "misleading" workers when it claims that it can handle the current volume of lawsuits - which, according to him, take somewhere between 5 to 10 years to wrap up. "For Brazil to grow, the government must shrink", he said.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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