The Labor Court in Jacareí (SP) temporarily suspended the dismissal of 420 employees of Avibras Aeroespacial, considered the main manufacturer in Brazil of heavy defense systems. The company faces financial difficulties, and filed for bankruptcy protection on March 18.
The request to stop the layoffs was presented by the Metalworkers Union of São José dos Campos and Region. The number of layoffs equates to nearly a third of the industry’s roughly 1,500 employees.
This Sunday (3), when granting urgent relief (provisional and early decision), Judge Adhemar Prisco da Cunha Neto considered the fact that the company had requested judicial recovery an aggravating factor, since, with that, the severance payments would not have been paid.
Cunha Neto wrote, in the decision, that regardless of the privilege given to payments to workers in judicial reorganizations, this advantage “will be of no use, since the sustenance, for himself and for the family, cannot wait.”
In ten days, the company must prove that it has communicated the reestablishment of contractual obligations to all those dismissed, as well as guidelines on how they should proceed. The reinstatement of dismissed employees is effective from the day they were laid off, March 18.
In an opinion sent to the action, the Public Ministry of Labor said it considers that there is already a settled judicial understanding in favor of the obligation to negotiate with the union of the category in the event of mass dismissal.
The Metalworkers Union of São José released a note saying that the decision was received with emotion by the workers. This Monday (4), a group of dismissed Avibras is in Brasília (DF), where they are trying to be received by the federal government.
According to the request submitted by Avibras at the Jacareí forum, where the company’s headquarters are located, the total value of the recovery is around R$ 570 million. This is the third time that Avibras has had to go to court for cash problems: it filed for bankruptcy in 1990 and, in 2008, went into judicial recovery that lasted about two years.
According to the lawyer responsible for the recovery request, Nelson Marcondes, from the Marcondes Machado office, the financial crisis was caused by the drop in the number of contracts during the pandemic. The lawyer was contacted on Monday, but has not yet responded.
In Sunday’s decision, Judge Cunha Neto says that the documentation presented by Avibras proves the company’s financial difficulties and the impact of the Covid-19 health crisis on business, but that there is a risk in maintaining the shutdowns. The company may be fined R$100 per day, per worker, if it fails to comply with the decision.
Founded in the 1960s by a group of engineers from ITA (Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica), including João Verdi Leite, the company grew in the aerospace sector, participating in research programs and developing products for this segment.
Currently, the flagship is the Astros-2 rocket launch system and its latest version, Astros-2020. But it also sells other products, such as armored vehicles.
The company also has the Brazilian Army as a customer, but as its main business is the sale of products to other countries, Avibras was left without buyers during the health crisis.
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