The Superior Labor Court and the phenomenon of outsourcing in Brazil: Research notes

Abstract

This article aimed to analyze the decisions of the Brazilian Labor Judiciary Power regarding the phenomenon of outsourcing, with a special focus on the decisions of the Superior Labor Court (SLC) between 2000 and 2016, in a dialogue with recent decisions made by the Federal Supreme Court (FSC) on the subject. Until 2017, there was no specific legislation on the topic of outsourcing in Brazil. In this vacuum, the SLC, through its decisions, established jurisprudential parameters that were dissolved over time, as in the case of the Precedent 331 of 1993, later modified. The paper analyzed this dynamics and, based on it, the role of Labor Justice and, more recently, of the FSC in the increase of outsourcing activities for workers in the pulp and paper industry, electricians, oil companies, banking correspondents, as well as call center and information technology (IT) workers in public banking.