Brazil launches a labor reform hated by trade unions and celebrated by companies

Four months after its approval, the Brazilian labor reform came into force today amid protests by workers, who say they have lost their rights, and commemorations of the employers, who consider it a new framework that will increase competitiveness and reduce unemployment.

Rio de Janeiro, Nov 11 (EFE) .- Four months after its approval, the Brazilian labor reform came into force today amid protests by workers, who say they have lost rights, and commemorations of employers, who consider it a new framework that will increase competitiveness and reduce unemployment.

Combined by unions since it was presented last year by the Government of President Michel Temer as a tool to modernize the labor legislation of 1943 and facilitate hiring, the reform was already a reason for two national strikes and still motivates protests.

For the Government, by means of flexibilizations that will facilitate the hiring, Brazil will be able to begin to combat unemployment, which afflicts to near of 13 million people, and boost the recovery of an economy that suffered in 2015 and 2016, with declines in GDP of 3.5% and 3.6%, its most serious recession in several decades.

The new rules give priority, even for above the law, to the agreements that the unions can reach with the companies in matters such as the division of vacations, the flexibilization of the working day, the intervals for lunch, salaries and the replacement of overtime.

It also regulates new forms of hiring, such as intermittent work (by days or hours), work from home and outsourced work, which allows companies to reduce their labor costs and have workers for additional activities without having to include them in payroll.

"The approved reform and sanctioned last July withdraws rights conquered by the Brazilian working class over seven decades, since 1943, when the first edition of the legislation was approved ", the CUT warned in a statement published on its website today.

The union center criticizes mainly the bank of hours that the worker can negotiate individually with the company to compensate for overtime, since the employee negotiates without the support of the unions; I work without paying any labor guarantee.

The president of the CUT, Vagner Freitas, affirmed that, in defense of 81% of the Brazilian workers who say to reject the reform in the polls, the unions will organize new stops to try to revert the lost rights.

"We are going to defend our side, which is the working class side. possibility of conciliation with the side that financed the coup (as it refers to the political trial that dismissed the socialist president Dilma Rousseff and replaced it with the conservative Fear) to end our rights. major trade union centrals warned that the reform came into force without the "compensations" promised by the Government and only commemorated by the employers' side.

La aparente The competitiveness that Brazilian companies will gain with the possibility of reducing their labor costs was already the subject of discussions in Argentina, whose businessmen press for similar changes not to be disadvantaged in the fight for foreign investment with Brazil.

Employers say they are still analyzing how they can take advantage of new forms of contracting for increase its production without generating labor costs but commemorate already the flexibility offered today by the reform.

For the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), the Employers who most mobilized in favor of the reform, its entry into force represents "the desired breakthrough in the construction of modern working relationships and aligned with the economy of the century XXI ".

" After more than seven decades, Brazil's legislation finally equaled that of other countries that have safe but flexible labor laws, "he commemorated this Saturday in State Federation of Industries of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan) informed.

The president of the influential Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo (FIESP), Paulo Skaff, the modernization of the laws will generate millions of new jobs, so it is a victory for the whole society and not just for businessmen.