Petrobras canceled its contract with the law firm of OAB President Felipe Santa Cruz Tuesday (6).
Santa Cruz's firm conducted labor cases on behalf of the oil giant. Last year, it won a R$ 5 billion claim to be paid as overtime to employees on board the state oil rigs.
The trial at the TST (High Labor Court) was tight: 6 votes in favor and five against.
"It was a termination action, something like resurrecting someone who died. I saved the company in the most serious labor case it has ever faced," says Santa Cruz.
He said he would go to court against the action. "There is clearly ongoing political persecution," he says.
Petrobras declined to comment on the case.
The lawyer was attacked last week by Jair Bolsonaro.
While complaining that the entity had filed a lawsuit to prevent the breach of telephone confidentiality of Adelio Bispo's defender, who stabbed him in last year's election campaign, the president said that he knew how Santa Cruz's father Fernando was killed during the military dictatorship.
He later stated that leftist militants killed Fernando Santa Cruz.
The president of the OAB went to the Supreme Court to ask for clarification from Bolsonaro, who has two weeks to explain his statements.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon