Bolsonaro is applauded by businessmen as he says he owes them favors and puts neutral judges on the TST

President Jair Bolsonaro (PL)​ criticized this Tuesday (7) the actions of the Public Ministry of Labor, defended the profile of the ministers appointed, by triple list, to the TST (Superior Labor Court) and waved to the audience of businessmen, saying that the government owes them a favor.

The president’s speeches were marked by a pro-business speech, which led to applause.

“What we’ve tried to do since the beginning of the government is to make your life easier. You don’t owe us any favors. We are the ones who owe you favors. You are the ones who use creates a position on a commission,” said the president, when he was applauded, at an event organized by the CNI (National Confederation of Industry), accompanied by ministers.

At another point, when he referred to “us” — the government — as the “employees” of the audience, he was once again applauded.

The president also questioned whether anyone would like the return of the union tax or activism in labor legislation. The rhetorical question was to praise the (Superior Labor Court) triple list and its appointment.

“Look at the profile of the people in the triple stripe that I referred to the TST. Could it be that if it were another person from another profile, how would the TST be, inclined to which side? Or exempt? How hard is it to be a boss in Brazil, I know that “, affirmed Bolsonaro.

The court, in fact, is the one who assembles the triple list and forwards it to the president, who makes the choice.

The TST plenary voted in November for Morgana Richa (TRT-2), Sérgio Pinto Martins (TRT-2) and Paulo Régis Machado Botelho (TRT-7).

The judge was appointed to the position by the chief executive in early November.

The government has in its hands a proposal for a new labor reform that legalizes the lockout (a kind of company strike) and limits the power of the Labor Court, which counted with the contribution of members of the TST.

The proposal, commissioned by the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, to Gaet (Group for Higher Labor Studies), alters the change in unionism in Brazil.

The group produced 330 changes to legal provisions. Among them are working on Sundays and the prohibition of recognition of employment relationship between service providers and the application, as shown by sheet.

Created in 2019, Gaet is made up of economists and jurists in the field, including Labor Justice magistrates and TST ministers, such as Ives Gandra da Silva Martins Filho, former president of the court and Bolsonaro’s ally.

In addition to the gestures to the business community, the president also criticized the actions of the Public Ministry, citing a case in Ceará.

According to Bolsonaro, someone from the Presidency of the Republic had received a phone call from a carnauba plantation owner and passed the call on to him.

The man complained of having received “half a dozen” of fines for not having a chemical toilet for employees, for eating “on a small table, in a rustic way” and for sleeping in a tent.

“They stuck the pen in the guy,” criticized the president. Then, the president discussed working conditions analogous to slavery in Brazil.

Bolsonaro said that, after the constitutional amendment for expropriation of land with slave labor was approved, “there was pressure, from that left that dominated Brazil, so that work analogous to slavery was also seen as slave.”

“What country is this? Socialism deepening in Brazil and people clapping their hands, people believing,” he said.

The specific case he refers to in Ceará is from 2019, when labor prosecutors in the state inspected areas of carnauba extraction and found workers in conditions analogous to slavery.

Attorney Italvar Medina, deputy National Coordinator of Conaete (National Coordination for the Eradication of Slave Labor and Combating Trafficking in Persons) of the Public Ministry of Labor said that the examples given in the president’s speech “reveal a lack of knowledge of the concept of slave labor” .

“And, as stated in the testimony itself, they were not based on the inspection reports themselves, but on biased information provided by the criminals caught with this practice,” he added.

Medina also highlighted that the MPT has been in dialogue with companies in the carnauba sector to only acquire raw material from producers who do not commit illegal activities, which has improved working conditions in the sector.

The president’s pro-business speeches also occur at a time when the government insists on voting on a bill that makes labor legislation more flexible.

This mini-reform, as it has been called, is justified by improving the condition of informal people. THE sheet, the executive secretary of the folder, Bruno Dalcolmo, asked the Congress to take the lead on the agenda.

The government had sent a proposal for a mini-labor reform in the MP (Provisional Measure 1,045), which facilitated rules for hiring young people and low-income people, but ended up being blocked by the Senate in September.

The president’s statements come amidst one of the most difficult times with the business and financial sector with the government.

In addition to having manipulated the spending ceiling, which operators in the market displeased by sending a message of fiscal irresponsibility, GDP dropped 0.1% in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the three immediately previous months, according to IBGE data.

This is the second consecutive low for the indicator, which renews signs of stagnation in economic activity.

Politically, this succession of factors is accompanied by the emergence of third-way candidates to compete for the right and centre-right vote against the president in elections next year. In particular, there is the pre-candidacy of former Lava Jato judge, Sergio Moro.