For the court, not counting the time the person worked under the age of 14 is to punish the worker twice.
The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) confirmed that rural child labor time can be computed for social security purposes. In the decision, the court recognized the illegality of child labor, but found that not adding the time for calculating retirement is punishing the worker twice.
The case, tried earlier this month, involved a man who started working with his family in the countryside at the age of 11 and asked the Justice that the period worked before turning 14 should be added to the length of service for requesting retirement of Social Security. In lower courts, only the period worked from the age of 14 was accepted because it was permitted by law.
In the STJ, the First Panel maintained the court’s jurisprudence and understood that there is no minimum age for recognizing the period of rural child labor for social security purposes.
In the vote on the issue, Minister Napoleão Nunes Maia, rapporteur of the case, stated that recognition is not a seal of the Judiciary on child labor.
“It is reaffirmed that the work of children and adolescents must be repressed with unyielding energy, with no exception that justifies it. However, once the work has been performed, the respective time must be computed, this calculation being the least that can be done to mitigate the damage suffered by the infant, but this without exonerating the employer from the legal punishments to which the person who employs or exploits the work of minors, ”he said.
On the 12th of this month, in reference to the World Day against Child Labor, several entities recalled that, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Brazil has about 2.5 million children and adolescents working illegally.
