Igrejas neopentecostais no polo passivo trabalhista: uma análise do trabalho religioso na jurisprudência do TRT-2 entre 2013-2023

Abstract

This dissertation proposes to examine the nature of the link between ministers and churches in the face of the increasing filing of lawsuits by former ministers, seeking recognition of employment. Analyze the pastor as a worker, considering the reports of proposed actions in which they demonstrate compliance with schedules, following rules, obeying goals, seeking advancement in the structure, preparing reports, carrying out administrative activities and experiencing situations of moral harassment practiced by superiors and appeals organization. Starting by contextualizing, in the examination of the supervision of the TRT of the 2nd Region, between the years 2013 and 2023, elements regarding the two members of the legal relationship: firstly, the religious organizations that are mainly involved, such as churches with neo-Pentecostal doctrine; moving on, then, to the former pastors and the reasons for meeting the demands. Such processes have recently seen growth in the Labor Court and derive from the increase in evangelical churches in Brazil in recent years. The relevance of the issue was updated with the approval of Law 14,647/23, which included §2 and §3 of article 442 of the CLT, bringing an express clause to the existence of the employment relationship between religious institutions and their priests, establishing as an exception only the verification of the distortion of religious purposes. As a research methodology, an interdisciplinary bibliographical review was carried out, associated with field research designed based on the content analysis method developed by Laurence Bardin, using the procedures indicated by the author's method as a guideline adapted to the research object. All TRT-2 sentences and rulings handed down between 2013-2023 were subjected to quantitative analysis, and 20 decisions were sent to content analysis to observe the decision-making grounds invoked for the recognition of the employment relationship. Motivated by the relevance of the topic today, this dissertation presents neo-Pentecostal growth as a reflection of neoliberal advances and neoconservative politics. The research is organized with the general objective of investigating the nature of the bond established and the situations of contractual exploitation experienced, based on the arguments and concrete testimonies of pastoral workers, raised in legal actions. It presents as an investigation hypothesis a growing labor fraud carried out by religious companies, especially by neo-Pentecostal churches, effectively organizations that seek to make a profit. Its specific objectives are: to analyze the members of the action centers: pastors and church; verify compliance with the requirements of the employment relationship; investigate the grounds highlighted by magistrates; examine how to decide regarding the distortion of religious purposes; learn about situations of contractual spoliation relating to the abuse of employment power and fraud regarding the temporal and spatial protection of work. As conclusions, it presents the judiciary in the centrality of religious work, investigating the interpretation of the distortion of religious purposes, as well as problematizing and providing knowledge on the actions of neoconservative sectors of Brazilian society, with legislative action in the labor field.