Heloisa de Alencar Santos
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
In a judgment, the Federal Supreme Court unanimously ruled out the application of the Reference Rate (TR) for monetary correction of labor debts, because the rate defined during the Labor Reform was considered unconstitutional.
However, the justices have yet to decide which rate will be used from then on. The vote is tied at 4-4 for the definition of the new correction index, with disagreement over the application of the IPCA index and the Selic index.
Justice Dias Toffoli has asked to see the judgment, which may delay the definition of the rate to be used
The Referential Rate was considered unconstitutional because it is more favorable to the employer, as well as because, as a rule, it is below annual inflation, so the Selic and IPCA rates are more favorable to the worker.
Justice Gilmar Mendes voted to partially uphold the lawsuits and to interpret the articles of the CLT that deal with the issue, in the sense of considering that, in the updating of credits arising from convictions and in the correction of appeal deposits in judicial accounts in the Labor Courts, the same monetary correction indexes in force for civil convictions in general should be applied, until a legislative solution emerges – the IPCA-e in the pre-judicial phase and, from the service of process, the Selic rate, based on article 406 of the Civil Code.
