TAM Linhas Aéreas SA (Latam) will have to pay for the break during the day to a cleaning assistant from Recife (PE) who could not leave the place of work to rest or eat, as she was waiting for the arrival of flights to do the cleaning. aircraft cleaning.
For the Second of the Superior Labor Court, this stand-by period must be considered as time available to the employer.
no break
In the Labor Court, the employee said that she was hired on a shift basis, with a six-hour day, a weekly break and without the right to a 15-minute break, provided for in article 71 of the CLT.
She argued that, given the possibility of an immediate return to activities, the time in which she waited for flights to arrive at the airport in Recife could not be considered as resting.
Stand-by
The court of first instance dismissed the request, and the sentence was maintained by the Regional Labor Court of the 6th Region (PE), which understood that the employee had taken the 15 minutes of break to which she was entitled, or even more, in some days .
The TRT relied on the testimony of a witness brought by the assistant herself who stated that the employees stayed for an hour or more on stand-by, waiting for the arrival of the planes to carry out the cleaning service.
time available
For the reporter of the maid's review appeal, Minister José Roberto Pimenta, the waiting time for the arrival of a flight to clean the aircraft cannot be considered a break during the workday, as she was not free to rest or eat, nor could she move away from the place of service. He noted that, on occasions, the aide had to interrupt meals to clean up a plane that had just landed.
The minister also pointed out that the stand-by time, by its own definition in Portuguese, means “time available”, “time on alert” or “time in which one is waiting for an event to act”. Although it could last longer than the 15 minutes provided for by law, considering this period as an intraday break, in his view, is not reasonable.
The decision was unanimous.
Street: TST
