In letter to Senate head, organizations condemn bill that undermines labor rights

Approved in the Lower House, organizations claim that MP 1045/2021 suppresses labor rights with fallacious economic justifications

Foto: Valdecir Galor/SMCS Foto: Valdecir Galor/SMCS

Seven civil society organizations sent a letter on Monday, August 16, to the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, condemning the text of MP (Provisional Measure) No. 1045/2021 that was approved by the Lower House of Congress on Wednesday, August 11. The MP, which alters labor rights, will now be analyzed by senators. 

Issued by the federal government, MP 1045 creates the New Emergency Program for Maintenance of Employment and Income and changes various labor rights by permitting, for example, the suspension of contracts and reduction of salaries. The justification is that the measure is necessary to help employers during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

According to the organizations, the changes approved in the Lower House transform the measure “into a veritable and destabilizing labor reform” and that it is fallacious to claim that by suppressing the rights of workers, the country will see economic growth. 

This MP “is an attack on the fundamental rights of the working class and creates loopholes for the worsening of working conditions […] and for the weakening of important labor protection mechanisms that currently exist in our legal system”, reads an excerpt of the letter. The organizations also explained that the text was approved without public participation, in particular representatives of workers and bodies that combat labor irregularities. 

The letter was signed by ADERE (Rural Workers Alliance of the State of Minas Gerais), the Information Center on Business and Human Rights (BHRRC), Conectas Human Rights, Contar, InPACTO, Oxfam Brasil and the Latin American Regional Office of the International Union of Food, Agricultural and Allied Workers (IUF Latin America).