A relação do trabalhador com o tempo: análise jurídica da jornada de trabalho brasileira no contexto da flexibilização horária e da intensificação laboral

Abstract

Given the current stage of technological advancement, the relationship between workers and time has taken on new nuances. This dissertation focuses on analyzing the compatibility of the current maximum working hours established by the Brazilian legal system with the current needs of workers. In the context of increased productivity brought about by technological advancement, which would logically enable a reduction in working hours, the maintenance of working hours and the growing phenomenon of labor intensification were observed. In order to seek a regulation of the subject that is more consistent with the balance between personal and professional life and the current stage of Brazilian production, an analysis of ILO Conventions and Regulations on the subject of working hours was used, as well as the 2023 report Working Time and Work-Life Balance Around the World, which also came from the ILO, which provided the most up-to-date global overview of the various configurations of standard working hours, highlighting the difference between flexibility and unpredictability. Given the maximum weekly working hours of forty hours established by ILO Convention No. 47 of 1935, not ratified by Brazil, and by ILO Recommendation No. 116 of 1962, it is understood that the maximum working hours limit should be reduced from forty-four hours per week to forty hours per week, up to five days per week, but the reduction should be made in compliance with the principle of progressive reduction of working hours. This level is also provided for in Law 8,112, which governs federal civil servants and would therefore bring parity of treatment between those under the CLT and public servants. However, any proposal for legal or constitutional change must consider the fact that the Brazilian legal system has some weaknesses that facilitate non-compliance with the current working hours: the possibility of working two hours of overtime per day, without requiring proof of the actual need and unpredictability of such hours, in addition to the authorization to establish a time bank by individual written agreement, even removing the monetary additional for working overtime. The reduction of the maximum working hours in the regulatory field is of fundamental importance, but it must be implemented in a way that is truly effective in the real reality of the Brazilian worker.