An urban bus company in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais, dismissed an employee and paid him, as a termination fine, only 20% of the FGTS deposits existing in the worker’s linked account, when the legal percentage required is 40%, under the allegation that the Covid-19 pandemic left him in a critical financial situation, which would characterize a force majeure reason.
The company based its decision on articles 501 and 502 of the CLT, combined with article 18, paragraph 2, of Law 8,036/1990 and Provisional Measure (MP) No. 927, of March 22, 2020 (whose validity expired without being converted into law), which provided for “labor alternatives to face the state of public calamity and the public health emergency of international importance resulting from the coronavirus (Covid-19)”.
Unsatisfied, the former employee sought the Labor Court, seeking to receive the difference in the termination fine, and his request was accepted, so that the force majeure configuration sustained by the company was dismissed, which was ordered to pay the difference in the fine on the FGTS deposits to the former employee.
The judge emphasized in the decision that, despite the company’s arguments and the terms of the Provisional Measure, the claim to reduce the amount of the FGTS fine is unreasonable, given that there was no proof of the extinction of the company or one of the establishments, due to the pandemic, which is a requirement provided for in article 502 of the CLT for the characterization of force majeure.
