The plenary session of the STF (Supreme Federal Court) will begin debating this Thursday (8), for the first time, a request for recognition of an employment relationship between a digital platform and an app worker. The issue to be addressed by the collegiate brings as a backdrop, according to experts heard by Folha, the legality of contracts beyond the signed card, provided for in the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws).<\/p>\n
Monocratic decisions on outsourcing, pejotiza\u00e7\u00e3o (private-employment), and uberiza\u00e7\u00e3o (uberization) demonstrate the recurrence of this debate. The speed with which justices render judgments is also striking.<\/p>\n
Ministers and President Lula at a formal opening session of the Judicial Year at the Supreme Federal Court (STF); the plenary session will decide this Thursday on the relationship between delivery drivers and apps \u2013 Pedro Ladeira \u2013 February 1, 2024\/Folhapress. Survey by the Labor and Development Research Group at the FGV Direito SP (FGV Law School of S\u00e3o Paulo)
\nshows that 15.7% of constitutional complaints\u2014an instrument used to overturn a lower court decision that allegedly violates Supreme Court precedents\u2014receive a single-judge decision on the same day or, at most, the day after the case challenging hiring procedures is received. Because these complaints are, the analysis tends to be faster, but in labor matters, the agility is even greater. Regarding other issues, only 6.29% of cases were decided in the same period.<\/p>\n
The unpublished data, to which Folha had access, is part of the second stage of the research Outsourcing and Pejotization at the STF: analysis of constitutional complaints, the first phase of which was completed in November.<\/p>\n
According to a study by Ol\u00edvia Pasqualeto, Ana Laura Barbosa, and Laura Fiorotto, justices issue a decision within five days in 33.19% of complaints regarding recognition of employment relationships. In general cases, the rate drops to 21.27%. Almost half (48%) of a total of 167 decisions between January and August of last year overturned the Labor Court's ruling\u2014a number considered high.<\/p>\n
According to Barbosa, the high volume of complaints about employment relationships (12.66% of the total, in 2023) and the organization of work in the court's offices are hypotheses to explain the greater speed of analysis.<\/p>\n
“Sendo muitos os casos, eles acabam sendo julgados mais rapidamente. Ent\u00e3o, o volume pode contribuir para isso [tempo mais curto para julgamento], pensando em uma organiza\u00e7\u00e3o do gabinete que procure otimizar mais o trabalho”, diz.<\/p>\n
Pasqualeto refor\u00e7a esse entendimento. “Em direito trabalhista, sabemos que h\u00e1 muito esse tema [reconhecimento de v\u00ednculo de emprego]. Talvez, a exist\u00eancia de pouca variedade [de outros temas] possa contribuir para que a decis\u00e3o seja mais replicada”, afirma. Justi\u00e7a do Trabalho ignora STF, e ministros veem afronta \u00e0 corte Justi\u00e7a multa Uber em R$ 1 bilh\u00e3o e manda empresa registrar motoristas ‘N\u00e3o chamei a Uber para vir, n\u00e3o vou falar para ir’, diz ministro do Trabalho Governo prop\u00f5e INSS, seguro de vida de R$ 40 mil e hora m\u00ednima a trabalhadores
\nof apps. Now, the specific case to be judged is that of a Rappi driver, whose employment relationship was recognized in the labor court. The reporting judge, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, suspended the proceedings and, in another complaint filed by Cabify, had already denied the work permit and sent the case to the Common Court. The First Panel unanimously overturned the labor court decision. Justices often use similar reasoning to overturn a lower court decision. Furthermore, they refer to precedents, which, taken together, show that other contracts are permitted. Among them are court decisions that reaffirm road transportation contracts without an employment relationship, authorize outsourcing in any activity, and consider any other form of division of labor lawful.<\/p>\n
Para Pasqualeto, os ministros fazem uma interpreta\u00e7\u00e3o ampliada da jurisprud\u00eancia, e afirma que o caso concreto em an\u00e1lise neste momento \u00e9 mais importante do que o tempo que se leva no julgamento. “Em pejotiza\u00e7\u00e3o, a gente j\u00e1 est\u00e1 vendo que o STF tem validado [o contrato]. No caso da uberiza\u00e7\u00e3o, talvez essa decis\u00e3o, se vier no sentido de negar o v\u00ednculo, ajude a pacificar as decis\u00f5es da Justi\u00e7a do Trabalho”, diz ela, que ressalta, no entanto, n\u00e3o ser un\u00e2nime a vis\u00e3o de reconhecimento de v\u00ednculo nesse ramo do Judici\u00e1rio. Na pejotiza\u00e7\u00e3o, cabe \u00e0 Justi\u00e7a do Trabalho analisar eventuais fraudes e coibi-las.<\/p>\n
Attorney Mayra Pal\u00f3poli, a partner at Pal\u00f3poli & Albrecht Advogados, highlights the Supreme Federal Court's precedents. "These decisions may be moving more quickly because there's already a conviction, a firm decision." According to Pal\u00f3poli, who represents companies challenging the recognition of a legal relationship in cases of pejotization, the court's decision in the Uberization case may reinforce the understanding of the legality of other contracts. "We have significant legal uncertainty with this matter. Broadly speaking, this would also apply to all other segments that use different forms of hiring, such as outsourcing, pejotization, and self-employment," she says. This history of decisions increases the expectation of a victory in the Supreme Federal Court in the Rappi case, says Daniel Domingues Chiode, a partner at the firm Chiode Minicucci | Littler, which represents the app in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Chiode \u00e9 respons\u00e1vel por outros processos nos quais faz a defesa das empresas de aplicativo. Segundo ele, os argumentos que apresenta aos ministros s\u00e3o todos com base em decis\u00f5es j\u00e1 tomadas pelo STF. “A gente est\u00e1 confiante no que o Supremo j\u00e1 decidiu. Eu n\u00e3o trouxe uma tese inovadora, eu juntei tudo o que o Supremo j\u00e1 tinha decidido em uma tese s\u00f3, mostrando que a Justi\u00e7a do Trabalho n\u00e3o est\u00e1 respeitando [precedentes]”, diz. O advogado reconhece que existe um v\u00e1cuo legislativo no Brasil sobre a atividade de motorista de aplicativo, mas, para ele, a falta de regulamenta\u00e7\u00e3o n\u00e3o leva a uma rela\u00e7\u00e3o autom\u00e1tica de registro em carteira de trabalho. “\u00c9 um contrato civil”, afirma. A tese do advogado ganhou for\u00e7a ap\u00f3s a PGR (Procuradoria-Geral da Rep\u00fablica) mudar o posicionamento sobre os apps. Antes, a PGR acreditava que havia v\u00ednculo empregat\u00edcio pela CLT, agora fala em trabalho aut\u00f4nomo.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Rappi states that the discussion will be "an important signal" for digital platforms, bringing legal certainty and ensuring "continuity in this economic sector." Superior Labor Court (TST) uses 'gamification' theory to recognize employment relationship with Uber. Zanin overturns TST decision and denies employment relationship to Rappi delivery driver. "We are facing a new way of organizing service provision and technology, bringing specificities to this type of work, in a way that current legislation does not yet address," the company says.<\/p>\n
The platform also states that drivers are free to choose when and where they will connect to work, and therefore, there would be no binding relationship. Rappi also claims to have contributed to the working group composed of companies, government, and unions, which is expected to produce a bill regulating app-based activity. The draft was expected to be submitted by the end of 2023, but this did not happen. The proposal may be released after February 20th. The Supreme Federal Court (STF) did not respond when contacted by the time this article was published.<\/p>\n
Article originally published on February 8, 2024, on the Folha de S. Paulo website.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" O plen\u00e1rio do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal) come\u00e7ar\u00e1 a debater nesta quinta-feira (8), pela primeira vez, um pedido de reconhecimento de v\u00ednculo de emprego entre uma plataforma digital e um trabalhador de aplicativo. O tema a ser enfrentado pelo colegiado traz como pano de fundo, segundo especialistas ouvidos pela Folha, a licitude de contratos al\u00e9m […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-na-midia"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ff01914ea0c952d2ed75983627e46b02-600x445.png",600,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ff01914ea0c952d2ed75983627e46b02-463x348.png",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ff01914ea0c952d2ed75983627e46b02-300x300.png",300,300,true],"full":["https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ff01914ea0c952d2ed75983627e46b02.png",600,600,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8330,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions\/8330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiode.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}