Lula participates in a meeting to discuss the revision of the labor reform; union contribution is on the agenda

Back from the end-of-year vacation, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva participates, this Tuesday (11), in a meeting with economists and trade unionists to discuss the revision of points of the labor reform implemented by the Temer government.

Organized by the Perseu Abramo Foundation, which is linked to the PT, the meeting will have the virtual participation of representatives of the first level of the Spanish government, in addition to the former Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE).

Lula’s presence is expected. Presidents of trade union centrals were also invited to go to the foundation’s headquarters. Trade unionists and economists will participate virtually.

From these meetings, a proposal to review Temer’s labor reform will be born, to be presented by May.

Several points are under discussion. Among them, include in law the possibility of fixing, in a workers’ assembly, the value of a union contribution to be paid by a certain category. The labor reform abolished the obligation of union dues, but did not provide for the hypothesis of collection authorized in agreement.

Another point under debate is the regulation of rules for the protection of application platform workers. The former president’s interlocutors also intend to present mechanisms to protect workers hired on an intermittent basis, whose service provision is not continuous.

President of the Perseu Abramo Foundation and articulator of this debate, former minister Aloizio Mercadante refutes the term counter-reform to refer to the new negotiation.

For him, the proper term is post-reform. Its purpose is to create, for example, rules for application workers. He cites the Spanish experience, where the evaluation parameters of these workers, via algorithms, are exposed to the worker so that they understand the remuneration criteria.

In Mercadante’s opinion, there is a new market for precarious workers that needs regulation. Furthermore, he says, the labor reform weakened unions without giving them room at the negotiating table.

Also according to Mercadante, all this debate will be carried out with workers and employers’ representatives. He points out that the changes in Spain are the result of negotiation. And the idea is that the same will happen in Brazil.

“It’s not an authoritative act,” he says.

The idea, he continues, is to understand the Spanish model in depth in order to know what could be adapted to the Brazilian reality. Mercadante says there are other successful experiences for app platform workers, like the one in New York.

On the 4th, Lula and the PT president, Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), posted messages on social networks sympathetic to the labor reform agreed between the government, businessmen and labor unions in Spain.

Called a counter-reform, the proposal revises the labor reform made in 2012 that would have boosted the precariousness of working conditions in the country.

The idea of ​​revoking parts of the labor reform is not consensual among unionists. This Monday, union centrals published a text in response to the article in which former president Michel Temer (MDB) defends the reform he led after the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff (PT).

Both Temer’s article and the centrals’ reply were published in Folha. Signed by the presidents of eight centrals, including CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores), the text does not mention the proposal to repeal the labor reform, but mentions, as bets for 2022, “social mobilization, in social dialogue and in tripartite negotiation to agree commitments between all”.

Also this week, Lula should meet with economists.