Video attributed to airline officials motivates hasty measure against passport vaccination

Ministry of Labor sources told CNN that the decision taken by the federal government to prohibit private companies from firing employees not vaccinated against Covid-19 was reinforced by a video in which employees of the airline Gol allegedly protest against the company’s decision to terminate employment contracts from of the 1st of November.

The ordinance signed by the Minister of Labour, Onyx Lorenzoni, says that “the employer is prohibited, when hiring or maintaining the worker’s employment, to demand any discriminatory or obligatory documents for hiring, especially proof of vaccination.”

The video that circulated in WhatsApp groups also reached the minister, who decided to hastily edit the ordinance. Lorenzoni determined, this Monday morning (1st), that the text be prepared. To interlocutors, he stated that the objective was to avoid unemployment.

Despite the extended holiday period, the ordinance was published in an extra edition of the Diário Oficial da União. CNN. Gol Linhas Aéreas also declined to comment on the matter.

Video with protests

In the video attributed to the airline’s crew, people are shown holding posters with phrases such as “Goal, without freedom, without just cause” and that the requirement of vaccination for employees is “coercion and constraint”.

For the minister, the possible exclusion of a company’s staff for non-vaccination would be a discriminatory measure. According to the ordinance, the vaccination certificate may be replaced by a test presentation, to be made available by the companies.

The vice president of the Brazilian Association of Labor Magistrates (ABMT), Olga Fortes, said this Monday (1st), in an interview with CNN, that the ordinance published by the Ministry of Labor is fragile from a legal point of view and, therefore, may not be followed in practice.

“The ordinance is not a kind of norm that has this obligatory power. It is an administrative act, usually internal, and does not restrict rights or create obligations,” said Fortes.