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Unanimously, the 2nd Panel of the Superior Labor Court (TST) recognized an employment relationship between an app delivery person from São José do Pinhas, Paraná, and the company Uber. The judges understood that the UberEats app has labor responsibilities by earning profits, establishing management powers and consuming the work of delivery drivers. In a statement, Uber stated that it intends to appeal the decision, which it considered to be an isolated and divergent understanding of other cases already judged by the Court.

 

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The ministers reviewed the position of the Regional Labor Court of the 9th Region (TRT9), which had denied the existence of an employment relationship. Unanimously, the 2nd Panel followed the vote of the rapporteur, Minister Margareth Rodrigues Costa, who accepts the appeal presented by the delivery man and rejects the Regional Court's interpretation that Uber acts only as a technological intermediary.

 

For the rapporteur, the non-recognition of labor rights is one of the pillars of the business model of digital platforms. In her vote, the minister criticized the decision of the TRT9 which, in her opinion, adopted a mistaken one. “In view of a mistaken legal conception regarding the social relationship established by companies that use platforms to hire work, the regional Court refused to the complainant the minimum guarantees provided for in arts. 1st, III, 6th and 7th of the Federal Constitution”. For her, it is up to the Judiciary to review legislation in light of new employment relationships.

 

 

As a basis, the rapporteur brought analysis from academics who describe the relationship between delivery people and applications as uberziation or platformization of work. According to them, companies, like Uber, act as service providers as they offer a digital infrastructure that controls each delivery instantly.

 

According to the minister, there is a service provision relationship between delivery people and applications that materializes a work relationship. “The employment contract, as a reality contract, materializes from the existence of a personal, onerous, non-occasional and subordinate provision of services, even if the desire or intention of the employer is not to establish a relationship along the lines employment.”

 

The delivery man sent the request to the Labor Court to recognize the employment relationship after being removed from the platform. According to him, there was a service provision relationship, without registration in the employment record, between the months of May and July 2021. Until the review by the 2nd Panel of the TST, the request had been denied.

 

On September 9, the delivery man and Uber reached an agreement to pay expenses and suspend the appeal to the TST. However, Minister Margareth Rodrigues Costa understood that, as the judgment of the appeal was on the agenda before the agreement between the parties was requested, it would not be appropriate to suspend the assessment of the 2nd Panel. Furthermore, the rapporteur ordered the sending of a letter to the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT), through the National Coordination for Combating Fraud in Labor Relations (Conafret).

 

The decision was handed down on September 29th and Uber, in a statement, stated that it will appeal. The case, number RR-536-45.2021.5.09.0892, will return to the first degree to judge the worker's requests.

 

Read the full Uber note:

 

Uber clarifies that it will appeal the decision handed down by the 2nd Panel of the Superior Labor Court, which represents an isolated understanding and contrary to other cases already judged by the Court itself.

 

The company considers that the ruling did not adequately evaluate the set of evidence produced in the process and was based, above all, on doctrinal positions with an ideological background that have already been overcome, including by the Federal Supreme Court.

 

In recent years, the various instances of Brazilian Justice have formed consistent jurisprudence confirming the fact that there is no employment relationship between Uber and the independent partners who use its platform, pointing out the absence of the four legal and concomitant requirements for the existence of an employment relationship (burdensomeness). , habituality, personality and subordination). Across the country, there are already more than 6,100 decisions from Regional Courts and Labor Courts rejecting the recognition of the co-employment relationship.