On the evening of 10 November at 8.30pm, all tv channels in
Brazil were interrupted to broadcast an announcement by labour
minister, Ronaldo Nogueira, who greeted the country's 102
million workforce with the statement: "Good evening, workers
of Brazil. Welcome to the future!"
Nogueira was making reference to the enactment of the
country's controversial labour reform bill, which came into
force on the following day and aims to modernise the country's
long-established and deeply entrenched labour laws.
(...)
The reform was indeed developed under a sensitive political
environment, marked by "deep antagonism and polarised
arguments," according to
José Carlos Wahle, partner at Veirano
Advogados. There have already been some conflicting court
decisions issued by the courts since the reform came into force for
example; one sticking to the old labour code rules in favour of the
employee, and the other using the new regulations in favour of the
employer, which have
