Sibele de Oliveira Pimenta
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The 5th Panel of the Superior Labor Court upheld the appeal filed by a company undergoing judicial reorganization in the interior of São Paulo against the ruling handed down by the Regional Labor Court of the 15th Region, in which it sought to dismiss the joint and several liability granted due to the recognition of an economic group.
In an execution of more than 4 million, the partners of the company under judicial reorganization were included in the process as debtors of the labor claim, as they had been part of the corporate structure of the employer company for part of the period covering the employment contract. The Regional Labor Court of the 15th Region, based solely on the contractual changes, upheld the sentence, which declared the company jointly and severally liable due to the existence of common partners.
The company, in turn, appealed, and the appeal was upheld to exclude the joint and several liability attributed to the company under judicial reorganization.
For the Reporting Justice of the TST, the TRT of the 15th Region decided in disagreement with current case law, since, in the labor sphere, the law provides that, in order for an economic group to be established, more than mere identity between partners is required, and there is a need for proof of direction, control or management of one company over the other, even though each of them retains its own legal personality and carries out economic activity.
However, even though the legal requirements for declaring an economic group are clear, there are many decisions by regional labor courts that go against the provisions of the law and the understanding of the TST itself.
The decision was celebrated not only because of the large sum involved in the execution, but because the TST’s decision is in line with the most recent case law, which understands that the mere identity of partners is not enough to characterize the economic group.
The company was represented by the Marcos Martins Advogados Labor Team.
