Server can convert special time in retirement

The STJ (Superior Court of Justice) ruled that civil servants who work in unhealthy or hazardous activities can convert the time of special service into common for retirement. There is, however, a restriction: the conversion is only allowed for periods worked until November 2019, when the Social Security reform began to take effect.

The Second Panel of the Court judged, last Thursday (24), the case of a civil servant who asked to use the period in which she worked as a commissioner, linked to the General Social Security Regime, in the calculation of her retirement from her own regime, of servers.

Social security lawyer Adriane Bramante, from the IBDP (Brazilian Institute of Social Security Law), says that the judgment should benefit categories such as nurses, doctors, dentists and X-ray technicians, who are exposed to radiation.

Special time refers to work performed by professionals who are exposed to chemical, physical or biological agents harmful to health, at levels above those permitted by law, permanently and uninterruptedly.

According to lawyer and law professor Domingos Zainaghi, the decision benefits municipal, state or federal public servants, who performed activities harmful to health or physical integrity, that is, under special conditions.

Judgment follows the STF

The Insured’s request was initially denied. The STJ’s understanding was that the reciprocal counting of length of service in the two regimes was prohibited by law.

However, the plenary of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided, in August 2020, that, until the approval of the Social Security reform, through constitutional amendment 103 of 2019, “there was no impediment to the application, to public servants, of the RGPS rules for the conversion of working hours in conditions harmful to health or physical integrity into regular activity time”.

Therefore, the STJ revised its decision to align with the Supreme Court’s determination and authorized the counting of time in both modalities and the issuance of a Certificate of Contribution Time.

Bramante points out, however, that the insured person who performs the conversion does not have the right to special retirement. “The conversion increases the time the insured has contributed, but the retirement will be for contribution time.”

The conversion of years worked into unhealthy or dangerous work for ordinary work also does not respect the one-to-one ratio: for men, each year worked must be multiplied by 1.4. In the case of women, by 1.2, says Bramante.

Also according to the decision of the STF, the right to conversion in common time for workers who worked under special conditions after the approval of the Social Security reform must comply with the complementary legislation of federated entities, such as the states.