CNJ orders bonuses to be paid to judges after the Labor Court says it would not give a penny

A member of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) went against the Labor Court and ordered late bonuses to be paid to judges. The measure responded to a request from two entities.

The president of the CSJT (Superior Council of Labor Justice) and of the TST (Superior Labor Court), minister Maria Cristina Peduzzi, had said that she would not allocate “any cent of public resources” to pay benefits about which there were doubts.

This Thursday (30), counselor Richard Pae Kim ordered the payment of so-called GECJs (cumulative exercise of jurisdiction gratuities) from previous years.

The decision is monocratic. Through a press office, Peduzzi stated that, “after the last decision of the CNJ, the CSJT is examining the measures for its compliance”.

The complaint was filed by Amatra-15 (association of magistrates of the TRT-15, from Campinas). Two administrative procedures, however, deal with the same issue at the CNJ.

One is with Kim, and the other with Luiz Fux, president of the CNJ and the STF (Supreme Federal Court) — this one prepared by Anamatra (National Association of Labor Judges).

Last Friday (24), Kim had given an injunction (provisional) in which he refused to deal with the bonus because the case was precisely with Fux. Now, however, he has changed his mind.

The board member reviewed the measure after Anamatra appealed the question brought to the board by Amatra-15. The councilor’s decision was taken one day before the end of the year.

According to him, “the proximity of the end of the 2021 fiscal year reveals, in itself, the existence of the danger of delay”.

According to the CSJT, the amount of gratuities delayed and denied this year is R$ 10.5 million. The agency said that it has already paid BRL 111.5 million in administrative liabilities in 2021.

The GECJ was created by law in 2015 to supplement the income of those who are overworked. Magistrates who accumulate service earn a third more on their salary.

Payment is limited to the constitutional ceiling of R$ 39.3 thousand — the salary of a STF minister. A judge earns R$33,700 per month, and a judge earns R$35,500.

The bonus, however, is regulated by the councils of the branches of the Judiciary. The CSJT had stricter rules.​

Work magistrates with late sentences were not entitled to receive the bonus, nor those who act in the so-called letters of precatory — when a judge in a particular court takes witness testimony at the request of a colleague from another region, for example.

These restrictions were lifted by the CNJ on February 4, 2020. With the decision, judges with delayed sentences and those responsible for precatory letters gained the right to the bonus.

On December 2 of this year, Peduzzi, in an order, rejected the discharge of any liability prior to the decision of the CNJ. It is against this decision of the minister that the entities rebelled.

Anamatra appealed to the CNJ, with a complaint signed by lawyer Emiliano Alves Aguiar. This case is with Fux.

According to Aguiar, “it is not up to the CSJT, in an exorbitant way, to modulate the effects of the CNJ’s plenary decision, when it has not done so”. Peduzzi said to follow the law.

“The restriction established regarding the payment of the ‘GECJ’ was based on respect for the principle of administrative legality (art. 37 of the Federal Constitution [Constituição Federal]), according to which the public administrator is only entitled to practice what the law authorizes”, wrote the minister.

According to her, the decision of the CNJ did not order retroactive payments. Amatra-15 then questioned Peduzzi’s decision in proceeding with Kim.

Peduzzi replied that the process “should have already been terminated due to loss of object”. Kim, then, on the 24th denied other requests made by Amatra-15, referring to health care, and did not analyze the GECJ.

Last week, he stated that the case “is being considered in the Complaint Procedure for Guarantee of Decisions (RGD) […], triggered by Anamatra.” “In order to avoid conflicting decisions [com Fux], I fail to appreciate that point at this point,” Kim wrote.

In Thursday’s decision, he included Anamatra as “interested third party” in the Amatra-15 action and said that there would be no more conflict with Fux.

“After carefully studying the information presented in this request for reconsideration, I verify, in a better analysis, that any decision in this PCA would not conflict with the analysis of the RGD […], under the presidency’s report [Fux]. As a result, I accept the request for reconsideration to analyze the preliminary injunction,” he said.

Kim even disagreed with Peduzzi’s argument that the CNJ decision did not pay benefits from previous years.

“Regarding the effects of this decision, in the absence of any deliberation about the modulation of its effects, its retroactive effectiveness must be recognized”, said the counselor.

With that, Kim ordered the CSJT to calculate liability amounts and corrected by the IPCA-E (Special Broad Consumer Price Index), in addition to blocking budget surpluses from the 2021 Labor Court, which avoids the return of money to the Treasury. It will be up to the TRTs (Regional Labor Courts) to make the payments.

Through a press office, the president of Anamatra, Luiz Antonio Colussi, said that the measure ensures a right of judges.

“The decision is important, because it guarantees the magistrates and labor magistrates what is their right, as duly recognized by the National Council of Justice”, stated Colussi.

Peduzzi reaffirmed, through his press office, his position. “My interpretation is already known”, said the minister.

When presenting the questions made to the CNJ, Sérgio Polastro Ribeiro, president of Amatra-15, stated, in a note, that the entity asks for the full execution of the budget.

According to him, the debts are “definitive and consolidated”. “This associative entity does not intend to create new benefits or grant new funds”, said Ribeiro.

Since 2018, the GECJs have been targeted by the TCU (Court of Accounts of the Union). According to the court’s audit, the benefit has been paid even without judges having made any effort to earn it.

The report calculated potential losses to the Union’s coffers at R$ 82.9 million per year, or R$ 331.5 million by 2021. The MPTCU (Prosecutor’s Office together with the TCU) agreed.

Judiciary bodies linked to the Union said, at the time, that they would only pay for excess work. The case would be judged on April 28, but was removed from the agenda and remains open.