Company is condemned for abusive working hours of up to 11 hours and lack of breaks for employees in SP

The action was filed by the Public Ministry of Labor (MPT). The agency pointed out overtime and some employees worked up to 11 consecutive hours.

In addition to determining immediate changes to the company's practices, the decision established compensation of R$40,000 for collective moral damages and fines of up to R$2,000 per worker harmed in case of non-compliance.

g1 contacted RR Serviços de Terceirização e Segurança Ltda., but did not receive a response until the last update of this report. The decision may be appealed to the Regional Labor Court of the 15th Region (TRT-15).

The court decision determined that the company must grant the minimum break for rest and meals, not subject employees to overtime beyond the limit without legal justification and maintain time controls that accurately portray the hours actually worked.

The measure will come into effect immediately after the parties are notified of the court decision. The R$40,000 to repair collective moral damages will be allocated to the Fund for the Defense of Diffuse Rights.

The public civil action was filed after an investigation conducted by the MPT in Araraquara, which gathered evidence of non-compliance with labor law regarding the working hours of employees activated at service stations in the city.

According to the MPT, the analysis of the time cards revealed that dozens of workers, especially those subject to the 12x36 scale, fully completed their shifts with their break schedule set to zero throughout the entire month worked.

In fixed cleaning and concierge positions, records indicated simultaneous manual notes and the absence of rest and food breaks.

The MPT reported that the evidence pointed to the overtime of some employees, including cases that worked up to 11 consecutive hours.

Before filing the lawsuit, the MPT proposed signing a Conduct Adjustment Term (TAC) so that the company could voluntarily adapt its conduct, but the defendant refused, who claimed that the errors resulted from mistakes made by the employees themselves on the cell phone application.

According to the MPT, the outsourced company argued that the interval cancellations would be compensated through proportional compensation.

However, when refuting this thesis and supporting the need for legal action, attorney Rafael de Araújo Gomes highlighted in the initial petition that "some employers, with regard to effective compliance with the law, are driven by the 'cost/benefit' guideline. As long as non-compliance with the law is economically advantageous, it will continue to be violated."

When analyzing the case, the judge completely rejected the defense's theses and dismissed the allegation of point control by exception, considering that occupational health and safety standards are imperative in nature and do not allow the transfer of the risks of economic activity to employees.

For judge Rafael Marques de Setta, "deliberate, repeated and widespread non-compliance with basic rules limiting working hours, granting rest breaks and reliability of functional records degrades working conditions, violates the health of the working environment and violates society's sense of justice, generating harmful trans-individual repercussions of an in re ipsa nature".