The Attorney General's Office (PGR) speaks out against the employment relationship between Rappi and the delivery driver.

Under the leadership of Paulo Gonet Branco, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) has changed its stance on the use of constitutional complaints to challenge labor decisions that identified employment relationships between app-based and platform workers. In a statement sent to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) last Thursday (January 25), the institution stated that labor decisions regarding Rappi contradict the Court's understanding of the validity of alternative forms of employment.

This is the underlying issue of RCL 64.018, a complaint filed by the delivery company against decisions handed down by the 4th Panel of the Regional Labor Court of the 3rd Region (TRT3) of Minas Gerais and the 2nd Panel of the Superior Labor Court (TST). The regional court had recognized the employment relationship as an intermittent contract. The higher court denied an appeal by Rappi.

The reporting judge, Alexandre de Moraes, suspended the proceedings in the specialized court and a provisional enforcement action. In the November injunction, he considered that the decision appeared to disregard the Supreme Court's findings. The complaint was included on the 1st Panel's December 5th trial agenda, but withdrawn at the request of then-Attorney General Elizeta Ramos.

Her position differed from that presented by Gonet Branco. As head of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), Elizeta Ramos argued, in similar cases, that there is no direct relationship between labor decisions and the Supreme Court's rulings. She also argued that it was impossible to prove that there was no fraud against the law, as the Labor Court claimed, because the complaint does not allow for a reanalysis of evidence. Augusto Aras, her predecessor at the PGR, shared the same view.

Gonet, the current Attorney General of the Republic, understood that, in the decisions regarding the relationship between Rappi and the delivery person, there was a “dissonance with the understanding of the Supreme Federal Court regarding the constitutionality of placing the provision of services intermediated by digital platforms outside the CLT in cases of similar order”.

Daniel Domingues Chiode, who works on behalf of Rappi, stated that "the Public Prosecutor's Office has a more modern position and is in line with the Supreme Court's understanding," and that "a statement by the Attorney General of the Republic, regarding the non-existence of a bond and the recognition of other alternative forms of work, serves as a guide even for the public civil actions that are being taken on the matter."

RCL 64.018 will be heard by the full Supreme Court (STF). Taking the case to the Court's 11 justices was a proposal from Cármen Lúcia. The case was included on the February 8th trial agenda by the Court's Chief Justice, Luís Roberto Barroso.

Article originally published on January 26, 2024 on the JOTA website.