All employers and employees are mandatorily represented by their respective union. The unions that will represent the employer and its employees are linked to the activities performed by the company in each city or state.
Unions can negotiate on behalf of the employers and employees and execute collective bargaining agreements. Collective bargaining agreements are instruments executed between the unions representing employers and employees for purposes of establishing general and normative rules that govern the relationship of a given category of employers and employees. The terms and conditions negotiated by the unions are mandatory and cover the employers and employees of the category.
An employer may also negotiate a specific collective bargaining agreement, applicable to its employees, directly with the employees’ union.
There are some matters that can only be implemented by means of a collective bargaining agreement such as an offsetting of a working hours system and profit/result sharing program.
Types of Representation
Number of Representatives
As per the Labour Code, companies with more than 200 employees may elect an employees’ representative committee in order to improve communications between employer and employees.
In accordance with the Labour Reform, the employees’ committee should be composed as follows:
Appointment of Representatives
The election date of the committee must be communicated at least thirty days in advance, counted from the end of the previous mandate, by means of a public notice that must be fixed in the company and enable the employees to enrol themselves as candidates.
The election committee shall be composed of 5 employees who are not candidates, in order to organise and monitor the election procedure. Employees hired on a fixed term, with the employment agreement suspended or who are in a notice period, even indemnified, cannot be candidates.
The members of the employees’ committee have job stability, as of the register of their candidacy, up to 1 year after the end of the mandate. Such members cannot suffer arbitrary termination. In other words, they cannot be terminated if their termination is not based on a disciplinary, technical, economic or financial reason.
Tasks and Obligations of Representatives
The members of the employees’ committee have the following tasks/duties:
Employees’ Representation in Management
As mentioned, the members of the employees’ committee have the duty of representing the employees before the Board of Directors.
In addition, Law 12.353/10 defines those public entities with more than 200 employees must elect an employees’ representative to occupy a position and represent them on the Board of Directors. Such representative must be elected among the other employees, in an election with the participation of a member of the representative Union.
Depending on the number of employees and the risk degree of the employer’s facility activity, the employer must have an Internal Commission for Accident Avoidance (“CIPA”), composed of both employee and employer representatives. Individuals elected as employee representative members of CIPA (either as full or alternate members) may not be terminated from the date of their registration as candidates for such position up to 1 (one) year after the expiration of their one-year term-in-office.
Also, depending on the number of employees and the risk degree of the employer’s facility activity, the employer must implement a Specialized Safety Engineering and Occupational Medicine (“SESMT”), which is a team of health and safety professionals hired by the employer.
