Everyone already knows the impasses between Uber and labor law regulators. While the first does not establish any direct connection in relation to the drivers and itself, the second states that workers must, indeed, have some legal support from Uber.
However, it seems that now things are starting to tighten up on the platform’s side. Yesterday (9/15), Uber was ordered to pay R$1 billion in collective moral damages, in addition to registering all drivers under the CLT regime.
The sentence was handed down by Labor Judge Maurício Pereira Simões, from the 4th Labor Court of São Paulo.
Image: Money Times/Reproduction
Decision surprises lawyers and shakes the market
The decision was issued in a public civil action initiated by the Regional Labor Attorney’s Office of the 2nd Region, of São Paulo, which received complaints from the Association of Autonomous Application Drivers (AMAA) regarding the working conditions of drivers.
The MPT (Public Ministry of Labor) claims that Uber maintains an employment relationship with drivers, which needs to be officially recognized.
In the sentence, Pereira Simões claims that Uber acted intentionally when interacting with its drivers, but avoided granting them minimum rights.
The argument says that this goes beyond negligence or recklessness, involving actions planned to avoid compliance with labor, social security, health and assistance laws.
The judge still understands that the company acted with intent or omission in its legal and constitutional obligations. In other words, Uber is aware of the laws, but evades them to avoid complying with drivers’ rights.
In view of the decision, the judge set a deadline of six months after the action becomes final for Uber to comply with the decision and register its drivers registered on the platform.
Compliance must occur gradually, with the company being obliged to indicate how many drivers are active and to prove the regularization of one-sixth of them each month until the end of the period.
However, drivers should not celebrate yet, as Uber announced that it will appeal the decision of the 4th Labor Court of São Paulo and will not implement any of the measures specified in the sentence until all possible remedies are exhausted.
