Labor Rights of Traders: Main Violations

Abstract

This article is the result of master's research developed in an interdisciplinary program. It arose from the consideration that labor is important for the social definition of man as well as for his development, and the observation that labor rights of traders are often not met. It was intended to identify which labor rights of traders are violated more frequently. The methodology employed was a quantitative approach, with a documentary survey that aimed to identify violations of labor rights in a specific population: traders working in a city in the Paraiba valley of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The survey data were treated statistically. Forty different types of violations were identified in a sample of 252 (two hundred and fifty-two) petitions analyzed of lawsuits filed at the Trade Union of the city studied in the period 2011-2015. In order to understand the violations of labor rights of these professionals, it is necessary to understand the complexity of the labor category of the trader. With the data collected, a variety of types of violations of the labor rights of the category of the traders in the studied municipality were identified and it was verified that the most frequent ones are concentrated in the lack of payment of severance funds. This is the recurrent violation, followed by non-payment of overtime and partial deposits under FGTS. The data collected may support projects of public policies aimed at reducing violations of labor rights concerning this category of workers, violations that constitute a social problem.