Cintia Yazigi *

Nowadays, because of the unanimous understanding regarding the competence of the Brazilian Labor Courts to judge labor lawsuits arising out of any occurrence concerning an employment relationship, the Labor Courts have received countless and endless Labor Claims involving moral damages to be indemnified by the employer.

The employer, besides being subject to frequent suits, often without corresponding to an effective occurrence of the alleged moral damages, might experience living with employees which have effectively caused “moral damages” to it.

It is not common to find, in Labor Courts, lawsuits filed by employers against employees with the purpose of indemnification for moral damages. But there are cases before the Common Courts where employers filed a civil suit against employees claiming indemnification of damages caused by the latter, as a consequence of the labor covenant in force.

There is no doubt that, by virtue of a certain action on the part of its employee or former employee, the employer’s image, as well as that of its administrators, could be impaired, materially affecting the economic and financial situation of the company.

Disregarding Precedent 227 of the High Court of Justice, which states that “a legal entity can suffer moral damages”, there is still a partial opinion that the “employee”, in the capacity of legal entity, cannot be a victim of moral damages. The CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) itself, announcing the reasons giving grounds to dismissal for cause of the employee, provides, in item “k” of article 482, the possibility of offense of honor, good name or the occurrence of physical offenses, practiced by an employee against the employer and hierarchical superiors.

Notwithstanding this possibility, the same article lists other reasons which, in some occasions, could imply damage to the employer, such as, for instance, undesirable acts: improbity or unsuitable behavior, bad procedure, competition and, in particular, the violation of professional secrecy.

The occurrence of damages to the employer can also take place when a certain employee discloses slanders on the economic and financial situation of the company or declares that he/she would have quit the company because it is about to go bankrupt. In both situations, the employee could cause a significant damage to his/her employer, being liable, without any doubt, for the payment of indemnification relative to the damage caused, from which he/she could not be exempted.

Even if the offenses are not directly addressed against the employer, but rather against the administrators, it is evident the possibility of impairing the honor or good name of the company, which could imply high damages to its worth value, with the loss of clients, credit and even a favorable position in the stock market.

Upon the evidencing of the illegal behavior of the employee, the existence of a damage suffered by the employer, and the chain of causation between the illegal behavior and the damage suffered, the right to indemnification for moral damages caused by the employee must be assured to the employer.

This is a warning to employers, meaning that the Labor Law does not protect only the employees’ rights, but rather the legal rules governing the labor relationship. In this regard, the employer must resort to this right in order to obtain the indemnification for damages incurred.

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