O recurso de revista e a uniformização de jurisprudência no Tribunal Superior do Trabalho: reflexões antes e depois da Reforma Trabalhista

Abstract

The 1988 Federal Constitution of Brazil granted, through the same content, the status of fundamental guarantees and rights to workers’ social rights, covering both material and processual rights. The constitutional principles that apply to labor court aim at promoting effectiveness and access to justice, guarantying the full exercise of demanded material rights. In this instrument of rights the notion of appeal arises, aiming at correcting injustices in lower courts judgments. The writ of certiorari, also called cert petition, when appropriate, serves as the guarantee of effectiveness of constitutional rights challenged in a given decision and is part of a context that seeks the materialization of fundamental rights. Its application and reach were particularly affected by recent changes in the Brazilian labor law, which was once affected by the creation of The Consolidation of Labor Laws in Brazil, known as CLT, as well as federal law 13.105/2014. Therefore, the cert petition in Brazil has been weakened; a result sought in the changes brought by this reform in Labor Law. An incisive statement about the possible developments of such reform in real cases concerning cert petitions is still precocious. The current prognosis seems to signal a decreased reach for access to justice and guarantees of workers’ fundamental social rights since, in general terms, removing interpretation prerogatives from magistrates and, removing from courts their power to epitomize seeking jurisprudence standardization, is, not only, frontally unconstitutional, but also a way to weaken the labor law procedures, which are essential for the materialization of rights damaged in social relations concerning labor. Fortunately, a moment of transition arises and it is peremptory that society, the Judiciary System – especially Labor Courts, lawyers and jurists remain vigilant, inspecting the results of these changes, claiming that fundamental rights, guaranteed by the constitutional law and built through the historical evolution of the Brazilian society are not removed