Court orders Brazilian postal workers back to work

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All postal workers in Brazil were due back at work yesterday (10th October), after the country’s top labour court ruled on a new labour contract.

The Superior Labour Court ended a month of partial strike action following a hearing on Tuesday, after two months of haggling over a new collective bargaining agreement.

The court forced union groups to accept Brazil Post’s latest proposal for an 8% pay increase.

Unions whose members did not return to work yesterday faced the prospect of BRL 50,000 ($22,932 USD) a day fines for noncompliance.

Judge Fernando Eizo Ono ruled that the Brazil Post pay offer was above inflation. The court-ordered labour agreement set a 6.23% in staff benefits, maintaining health insurance and healthcare provision at the same levels as in last year’s court-ordered collective bargaining agreement.


The court ruled in favour of Brazil Post’s most recent contract offer, based on an 8% pay rise

Brazil Post confirmed following the hearing that all its staff were due to return to work Thursday.

The state-owned postal operator noted that the court has required that staff who went on strike during the last month will work extra shifts of two hours per day within the next 180 days, in order to compensate for the time lost during their industrial action, and to help get letter and parcel delivery services back to normal as quickly as possible.

Services

Brazil Post said last night that it believed it would take seven days to get its services completely back to normal following the month’s partial strike action.

The situation is already normal in areas where the company secured an early agreement with regional union groups, in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rondônia, Tocantins and Amapá, in metropolitan areas of São Paulo and in the regions of Bauru and Sorocaba.

Brazil Post’s service network is open across the country, including SEDEX express services. The company said it expected its collection-by-appointment services, which were suspended in strike-affected areas, should return to normal from Monday (14th October).

Union groups said on Wednesday that striking workers had shown courage in making a stand. Sintect/DF, the union for the capital region, said the increase in earnings won through the process were “important”, but as important were improvements to working conditions, such as the move to increase morning deliveries to improve the conditions for delivery staff.