Labor reform and its effects on access to justice

Abstract

This dissertation critically examines the effects of the Labor Reform enacted by Law No. 13,467/2017 on access to Labor Justice, understood as a substantive fundamental right rather than merely a formal guarantee of access to the courts. The study is justified by the significant decline in the number of labor claims filed after the reform and by the need to determine whether this decline results from greater institutional efficiency or from the creation of barriers to exercising the right to legal action. The central hypothesis is that the procedural changes introduced in 2017 substantially altered the economic and institutional incentives to seek judicial protection, producing a deterrent effect, particularly on workers in situations of socioeconomic vulnerability. From a theoretical perspective, the research draws on the access-to-justice framework developed by Cappelletti and Garth and further advanced by authors such as Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Albiston, and Sandefur, articulating this approach with constitutional and labor law doctrine. Methodologically, the study combines legal-dogmatic analysis, critical theoretical review, and empirical examination of official institutional data (DataJud/CNJ, TST, and CSJT), through a comparative analysis of two four-year periods (2017–2020 and 2022–2025), taking the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court’s decision in ADI 5766 as an institutional benchmark. The findings indicate that the decline in filings following the reform and the subsequent increase after the declaration of unconstitutionality of restrictive provisions demonstrate that the normative design of labor procedure directly affects the real possibility of exercising the right of action. The study concludes that reforms guided solely by quantitative efficiency criteria may undermine the effectiveness of fundamental rights and the role of Labor Justice as an instrument of social citizenship.