05/02/2025
- Overtime;
- Intra-shift Break;
- Insalubrity Bonus;
- Attorney Fees;
- Denial of Jurisdictional Relief.
The Labor Court of Appeals (or TST, in Portuguese acronym), as the highest court of the Brazilian Labor Justice system, has ranked the most recurring topics adjudged in 2024 and, out of the cases trialed in 2024, the topic involving overtime was the most recurring one. According to the survey, 70,508 overtime cases were trialed in 2024, which stands for a 19.7% growth in comparison with the 58,900 cases trialed in 2023.
Furthermore, overtime is the subject matter of thousands of other cases discussing specific respects of that right, such as the divisor to be applied, suppression or reduction, tax basis, residual minutes, and the effects thereof on other wage elements.
The second most discussed topic, involving 48,283 cases (20% more than the previous year), is intra-shift break. Under article 71, paragraph 1 of the Brazilian Labor Code (or CLT, in Portuguese acronym), when the work shift is at most 6 hours a day, the person has the right to a 15-min rest or meal break. If the work shift exceeds 6 hours a day, the break must be at least 1 hour and at most 2 hours.
The insalubrity bonus, a topic involving 40,932 cases trialed, ranked third. This bonus is paid to those who work in conditions that are harmful to health, such as contact with chemical, biological or physical agents above the tolerance limits set forth in statutory standards of the Ministry of Labor. The cases discuss certain points as the right to the bonus in certain situations, as well as the tax basis for that wage element and whether it can or cannot be accrued with other bonuses.
The topic involving attorney fees ranked fourth, with the attorney fees being the installment payable to the lawyer for his services in connection with the lawsuit, and 39,857 cases about that topic were trialed. On the word of the TST, a material reduction was seen in comparison with 2023, when 51,241 cases addressed such topic.
Finally, ranking fifth, there is the denial of jurisdictional relief, a situation where one of the parties claims that the decision failed to adjudge a point that has been previously raised, but was not approached by the Court. In 2024, 39,096 cases involving such topic were trialed, which represented a reduction of more than 31% compared to the previous year.
Another interesting fact is that, in keeping with the numbers available in the National Database of the Judiciary Branch (DataJud), until October 2024, 3.08 million cases were solved by the Labor Courts, against 2.91 million new cases filed.
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Authored by: Peterson Vilela Muta
