Justice decides that Gol should compensate commissioner for use of nail polish

A flight attendant who had worked for about ten years for Gol Linhas Aéreas filed a claim for compensation after developing contact dermatitis, caused by the use of nail polish required by the company.

According to the lawsuit, the employee presented a medical certificate, in which it was recommended to suspend the use of the product on nails for two months. The next day, she was dismissed without just cause.

According to the judges of the 2nd Panel of the TRT-4 (Regional Labor Court of the 4th Region), in Rio Grande do Sul, the company did not prove that the dismissal occurred for reasons other than dermatitis. In this way, the decision partially reformed the sentence given by the 30th Labor Court of Porto Alegre.

Sought, Gol stated that it does not comment on court decisions.

The medical expert report produced in the process found that the lesions appeared during the period in which the employee worked at the company and that Gol required the use of nail polish. According to the expert, the existence of a causal link between the disease presented and work has been proven. The witnesses heard indicated that the use of nail polish by the flight attendants was mandatory by the employer’s booklet.​

The first degree judge, however, understood that there was no discriminatory dismissal because the worker did not have a serious illness that would cause stigma or prejudice. The magistrate also did not recognize the accidental stability in employment, justifying that the commissioner was not removed from work with payment of sickness benefit from the INSS (National Institute of Social Security).

The first degree sentence ordered the company to pay the employee’s medical expenses, in the form of material damages, in the amount of R$1,500 and compensation for moral damages, fixed at R$10,000. The judge declared that “the existence of moral damage is therefore clear, since the plaintiff, as has been exhaustively demonstrated, was affected by a pathology that originated and worsened with the work carried out by her on behalf of the defendant; likewise, it was recognized the defendant’s fault for forcing the use of nail polish and makeup”.

The parties appealed to the TRT-RS. For the rapporteur of the case in the 2nd Panel, judge Tânia Regina Silva Reckziegel, the requirements that authorize the recognition of accidental temporary stability to the author are absent. On the other hand, the judge considered that the farewell was discriminatory. “I repeat that it is a ten-year bond, with the registration of more than one compliment during the course of the contract. Furthermore, there is an inexplicable coincidence between the presentation of the waiver certificate for the use of nail polishes and the termination”, said the judge.

In these terms, the group judged that the company must pay compensation for the discriminatory dismissal, in addition to severance pay, and maintained the condemnation of compensation for moral damage given in the sentence.

The decision was unanimous in the collegiate. Judges Alexandre Corrêa da Cruz and Marçal Henri dos Santos Figueiredo also participated in the trial. The company filed a review appeal with the TST (Superior Labor Court).