Labor courts distribute millions of reais amid the Covid pandemic.

Companies and workers are receiving millions of reais from the Labor Courts amidst the pandemic. A project initiated in 2019 to return forgotten funds in judicial accounts to their owners has gained momentum. Most of the funds located through the so-called "Garimpo System" belong to employers – who can transfer them to settle other labor debts.

The program was developed by the Regional Labor Court (TRT) of Rio Grande do Norte and gained national recognition, especially last year. It allows for the cross-referencing of data from archived cases with information from Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal. However, it does not identify the owners of the funds still pending in judicial accounts. This subsequent work is done manually.

These forgotten funds belong to the parties involved – the worker or the company, which may have made an overpayment – to lawyers and experts, or even to the Federal Government, through tax credits. The Superior Labor Court (TST) estimated, in 2020, that approximately R$ 2 billion were forgotten.

In the São Paulo Regional Labor Court (TRT), the largest in the country, R$ 113.8 million has already been located. The majority of this amount belongs to companies, totaling approximately R$ 84 million. The Bahia Regional Labor Court found a total of R$ 173 million. And those of Campinas (SP) and Rio de Janeiro found R$ 165.7 million and R$ 40 million, respectively. A pioneer in this initiative, Rio Grande do Norte made R$ 28.8 million available.

The challenge of the project lies in locating the beneficiaries of these funds, since these are very old cases, often on paper. Recently, the São Paulo Regional Labor Court identified the daughter of a deceased worker who was owed approximately R$ 1.6 million. She was unaware of the lawsuits filed by her father in the 1990s.

These cases were filed with very little personal information, as was common at the time. The only available data about the employee was their name and work permit number, in addition to an outdated address. In the 2000s, the lawyer and judges in the cases tried to locate the worker, but were unsuccessful.

Last year, these processes were flagged by the Garimpo System. Through a FGTS (Brazilian employee severance fund) deposit slip with an account number, a CPF (Brazilian individual taxpayer registration number) was obtained, and it was then discovered that he had already died almost 20 years ago. Subsequently, a search at the Commercial Registry of the State of São Paulo (Jucesp) identified a company at one of the addresses where the worker had lived. The owner promised to give the heir the phone number of the Regional Labor Court (TRT), which took her 15 days to call, somewhat incredulous.

“Many times the party doesn’t even know they have this money to receive,” says Judge Valdir Rodrigues de Souza, who coordinates the project at the TRT (Regional Labor Court) of São Paulo. He explains that due to the pandemic, all employees were quarantined. Only in October was there a partial return to in-person activities for the Garimpo Project.

According to the judge, the work to locate the rightful heirs has been rewarding. Last week, he says, he released R$ 300,000 to another heir who was unaware of the process. “I usually say that it’s a sector where everyone wins. The employer wins, the employee wins, and the government wins with the payment of taxes. Issuing the judgment is important, but it’s very good to see the credit satisfied, the process finalized.”

The judge and 15 other staff members work in the Unit for the Remediation of Permanently Archived Cases. Due to the pandemic and restrictions, only 20% of the staff are working in person. "All of this has made the work more difficult, but we are asking lawyers to digitize the documents so that they can be sent to the employees working from home," he says.

In addition to the funds allocated to the parties, the General Inspectorate of Labor Justice (CSJT) authorized the Regional Labor Courts (TRTs) to transfer amounts of up to R$ 150 to the Union's Covid-19 Combat Fund – a minimum amount was established for the work. In the case of the São Paulo TRT, R$ 171,000 has already been allocated. The Campinas TRT allocated R$ 5.4 million.

Also identified are assets that can make a difference in a company's day-to-day operations. The Regional Labor Court of Campinas managed to recover R$ 118,000 for the Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Descalvado (Brotherhood of the Holy House of Mercy of Descalvado). These funds enabled the renovation of the hospital's roof and the purchase of equipment.

Of the R$165.7 million recovered by the Regional Labor Court (TRT), R$69.3 million went to companies and R$36.7 million to workers. Another significant amount, around R$59 million, was transferred to other labor lawsuits filed by employers.

This February, the Garimpo project at the Rio de Janeiro Regional Labor Court (TRT) allocated nearly R$ 5 million that would have been returned to the Water and Sewage Company (Cedae) to settle pending lawsuits against the company. According to the judge managing the Garimpo Project, Márcia Regina Leal Campos, the recovered funds, instead of being released to the account holder, were made available to the state's labor courts for use in pending lawsuits.

A pioneer in this initiative, the Regional Labor Court of Rio Grande do Norte, which began its work in 2019, returned R$ 5.9 million to the parties in 2019 and approximately R$ 22.9 million last year. According to Judge Cacio Oliveira Manoel, despite the pandemic delaying the progress of the work, the results are good.

“We were able to inject resources into the economy because these funds had been forgotten. We are still making the transfer to move other processes that were awaiting payment,” he says. He adds that, at the beginning of the pandemic, they were able to locate funds forgotten by companies in difficulty, which were then able to settle severance payments for laid-off employees.

Source: Valor Econômico