Importance of labor Compliance for companies

Business / the term compliance originates from the English verb “to comply”, which means “to obey, to be in compliance with laws, ethical standards, internal and external regulations”.

Compliance is nothing more than a code of conduct, with a public character (usually available on the website of a particular company) in which the Company defines its values, objectives, goals and standards of how to act in certain situations, before customers, suppliers and employees. It arose with the full intention of avoiding deviations in conduct, preserving the principle of good faith and legal certainty.

In addition to standardizing the conduct to be taken by the company and its employees, compliance rules aim to make companies transparent to the market and society.

Following this premise, it should be noted that labor compliance arose in order to make transparent to the market and society the attitude and treatments taken by a certain company before its employees. Said device ensures the practice of good manners by the company and its employees in maintaining compliance of its Acts/requirements with the laws relevant to labor law, reducing the risks of suffering administrative fines or other penalties. In this mainstay, it should be noted that the main objective of labor compliance is to minimize labor liabilities, that is, the rates of lawsuits.

In this mainstay, it should be noted that the main objective of labor compliance is to minimize labor liabilities, which includes creating, in a certain way, a protection to the Labor risk that the company may suffer due to the practice of illegal conducts. For this, the attitudes admitted in the organization must be adapted, from the base to the board / presidency, also instituting punishments for those who fail to comply with the provisions of the code of conduct.

In addition, for there to be an effective compliance with the rules of labor compliance, and also, in a certain way, an “inspection” of the conduct of employees/managers, it is of paramount importance, the creation of a complaint channel that, among others, must preserve anonymity and efficiency, where employees can make their complaints, complaints and situations that they understand hurt the company’s code of conduct.

In order for labor compliance to be established and harmonious, fulfilling its purpose, it is necessary to establish a multidisciplinary team, in which the human resources sector must work concomitantly with the legal, accounting, as well as with management (managers/directors, etc.) to act and detect in the Prevention of risks, in order to avoid disagreements between employees and superiors, work accidents, development of occupational diseases and other situations that may give cause to possible propositions of labor complaints.

In order for there to be effective mitigation of Labor risk, the attitudes to be taken by the company go far beyond, for example, simply providing personal protective equipment (PPE), the needs of the company and each sector must be ascertained and the premises adjusted to this.

It is possible to cite as an example a sector of a certain company that there is a demand for employees to perform overtime habitually. In this case, it should be verified what is the best strategy to solve the problem, and the solution may be the limitation of 2 extra hours per day with the institution of hour bank, or the hiring of more employees, or even the hypothesis of the promotion of one or two employees to a position of trust, which in accordance with Article 62 of the CLT, does not have control of working hours, but with the right to an increase of 40%.

Or, the Company expressly states in its code of conduct that it is intolerant of slave labor, child labor, as well as moral and sexual harassment, repudiating and creating express punishment for those who hurt such recommendations, regardless of the position that the offending individual enjoys.

In other cases, companies that have production lines can be mentioned, which, in addition to providing personal protective equipment (PPE), include in their code of conduct that there will be, periodically, the realization of studies and ergometric reports in order to verify what possible damages that a certain function brings to the worker if exercised for many hours and for a long time, and also, stating what attitudes will be taken to avoid triggering possible diseases arising from the posture in which the worker remains during labor, either by performing repetitive movement or by carrying excess weight.

Finally, it is concluded that the institution of a labor compliance will not eradicate all the risks of the company, considering that there is no organization free of economic and business risks, however, through labor compliance it is possible that such risks are mapped, controlled, calculated and even avoided, aiming at the mitigation of Labor liabilities, as well as that the company increases the level of credibility before its customers, suppliers and employees, making all individuals want to negotiate and work with that organization.

Júlia Piovesan de Souza is a lawyer, graduated in law, from the Padra Anchieta University Center (2018), enrolled in the Brazilian Bar Association, São Paulo Section (2019). Postgraduate in Business Law from Faculdade Legale, author of articles. Lawyer at TM Associados.