1. Labour Inspection and Labour Justice in Brazil
Venice, September 2011

2. International Labour Conference 2011
Item for the General Discussion.
Committee of Experts contribution: General Observation on Convention 81
Improved and standardized data collection;
Importance of the Annual Labour Inspectorate Reports;
Increased interplay with relevant national institutions.

3. Institutional Framework in Brazil
Internal (within the Executive Power) exchanges and cooperation: Ministry of Social Security; Ministry of Health; Social Security Services;
External exchanges and cooperation: Labour Attorney General´s Office; Labour Justice; ILO.

4. Brief Description of the Labour Prosecution Services in Brazil
1 Attorney General, 24 Under-Attorney General and 24 Regional Chief Attorneys (plus around 600 Attorneys in the whole country);
6 specialized Coordinations:
Forced Labour;
Child Labour;
Equality (combat to discrimination);
Freedom of Association

5. Brief Description of the Labour Prosecution Services in Brazil
Persons with disabilities;
Work environment (dealing with issues related to health and safety at the workplace).
Constitutional mandate to defend, on behalf of the society, individual, collective or difuse rights, in the case of public interest.

6. Brief Description of the Labour Justice in Brazil
1 Superior Court (27 Justices) and 1 Superior Council, gathering 6 Justices and 4 Chief Judges of Regional Courts, elected by their peers;
24 Regional Courts – 315 Judges (in all States of the Union, except three);
2,288 Judges in almost 1,000 cities and towns, spread all over the country.

7. CASES OF SUCCESS Forced Labour: Special Teams of Labour Inspectors;
More than US$ 15 million fines imposed in judicial litigation or administrative investigation of the Public Prosecution Services in the last 10 years;
Destination of the fines collected to social programmes in the towns of origin of the workers concerned, as well as to permanent equipment for the Federal Police and the Labour Inspection.

8. CASES OF SUCCESS Health and Safety:
Increasing number of cases brought by Public Prosecutors to Labour Courts;
National campaign led by the Chief Justice of the Labour Justice launched in May, 2011, rendering so far:
Adhesion of relevant partners (Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Security, National Security Institute, Labour Attorney General´s Office, Union Attorney General´s Office and the National Association of Labour Judges.

9. CASES OF SUCCESS
Media Campaign with daily insertions in several public and private media enterprises;
Iniative of the Federal District Government to issue a publication aimed at children raising the awareness on accidents in the childhood;
Issuing by the Labour Justice National Council of the directives for a National Plan on Health and Safety in the Labour Justice;
Appointment of Focal Point Judges (2 per Region) responsible for the implementation and following-up of those directives at the regional level.

10. CHALLENGES
Lack of reliable data (last figures on health and safety date back to 2009). Consolidated data for 2010 is expected this year;
Lack of understanding of Judges, Prosecutors and Labour Inspectors of each other´s role and the benefits of cooperation (proposed action: use of Judges and Prosecutors Schools);
Need for increased responsiveness to acts of violence against Labour Inspectors - Unaí case (action has been taken by the Supreme Court Chief Justice, on behalf of the National Council for the Judiciary) .

11. THANK YOU! Lelio Bentes Corrêa lbc@tst.jus.br leliobentes@hotmail.com
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