O "mito EUA": um país sem direitos trabalhistas?

Abstract

Brazil has experienced substantial changes in its Labor and Employment Law over the past several years. The passage of certain legislative measures has altered significantly the nature of its labor and employment relations. At the core of these reforms, there is a hidden dream: achieve the same level of socio-political-economic development of the United States, the “America where things really work”. In order to achieve this “American Dream”, Brazilian politicians, economists, jurists and lay persons make frequent references to the regulatory regime (or lack thereof) in the American culture of labor and employment relations: “There are no labor rights, but there are jobs”; “there are no labor codes, labor courts or a Ministry of Labor”; “in the U.S., employers and employees can agree about whatever they want”; “we should learn from the place where things really have worked”; “we need more contractual freedom in employment relations, as they have in the U.S.”; “who would like to work and live in a country where there are almost no labor rights? Almost everyone!”. The assertion that the United States does not have an effective regulatory regime of labor relations and labor protections recently has become a conventional wisdom in Brazil used to disregard, discredit and treat with disdain those Brazilian institutions which are responsible for the enforcement of labor statutes and the resolution of employment conflicts. Considering this current scenario, the present study seeks to contribute to an accurate understanding of the labor universe in the United States, in order to review and analyze the American labor and employment law system without delusions, false idealisms, fixations, myths, fallacies and misrepresentations.