My Morning in Court
A friend of mine is suing her former boss -- who we'll call F, because that's the first letter of his name. F is the kind of person you can go most of your life without meeting in the US -- because unless you're poor enough to work for him or rich enough to be just like him, you'll never meet him. In Brazil, on the other hand, if you are in the middle class (i.e., you have a college degree) then you can't help but meet someone like him at least once a month.
F owns a company that sells supplies for plastic surgery -- silicone and saline implants, botox, and so on. F's father is a surgeon, and F has gotten everything he has ever wanted in life. His father set him up in the business. F has a salesman working for him on commission, and a secretary who handles the administrative side of the business. F just signs the checks.
My friend was F's secretary for two months before he signed work book (a peculiar bit of Brazilian bureaucracy) and made her a legal employee, and then he fired her two months after she got pregnant (a huge no-no).
During her period of employment in his office, F spent as much time out of the office (sometimes on two-week trips to Rio with a friend while his wife stayed behind in Recife) as he did in the office. At least once he casually mentioned to my friend that he had spent more money the previous weekend than she earned in a month. He also told her that what he was paying her (a little over R$400 per month) was enough for her to buy a car and a house, if she was smart with her money. When he fired her he told her that "people like me work to enjoy themselves lavishly* on the weekends, people like you work to buy beans."
I met F once. He told my friend that he needed to study English, and she suggested me. He called and set up an appointment, and I went to the office to meet him. He told me, in Portuguese, that he spoke excellent English but had difficulty understanding English when it is spoken to him. He spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, in Portuguese, about how great his English was but how he needed to improve his listening because he had to go to conferences and speak to suppliers in the US. When he finished telling me, in Portuguese, about his proficiency
in English, he asked me what my price was. I told him -- R$30 per hour -- and he replied that my price was too high, he couldn't afford it, and that he knew someone who would come to his office and give English lessons for R$8 per hour (about $3US at the time). I wished him luck with his R$8 teacher, thanked him for his interest, and left.
My friend called me last night to ask me to appear as a witness this morning, because she apparently needed someone to testify that she had in fact worked for F's company. I said yes, grumbled when I got off the phone, and rearranged my schedule so I could do it. I went to the Tribunal de Trabalho (the Brazilian court system is nothing at all like the US courts) and waited for her hearing. Her attorney arrived and told me right away that I couldn't testify -- because I knew her before she worked for F. So her husband and I waited outside of the hearing room, watching through the glass.
And the good news is that F is well and truly fucked. My friend's employment is well documented, she earned commissions a few sales that took place while the salesman was out of the office, and F signed the commissions, and her pregnancy was well documented. The only objection F's attorney raised was to the pregnancy test presented as evidence -- he asked for it to be excluded because she hadn't taken a second test two weeks later to verify that it wasn't a false positive. I think that was his hail Mary, because her son's birth certificate was also in evidence. (I also suspect, on the basis of no evidence at all, that he was hoping to get a male judge -- he didn't -- so he could use the "You know we can't trust them bitches" defense.)
F was furious. That was the best part. His eyes were red and he looked like he was barely hanging on to his self control. He knows that he has almost no chance of winning this case, but his pride made him refuse the possibility of a settlement. He will, in all likelihood, have to pay seven months' salary (the pregnancy) plus another four (I think, although it might be as low as two) months' salary (maternity leave), plus damages, and then additional fines (which probably won't go to my friend). It's all too rare in Brazil that people like F have to pay for their mistreatment of others. It's too bad I couldn't hammer a nail or two into his coffin, but it was still a great morning.
*The verb he used, "luxar," doesn't have a direct translation to English -- it's the verb form of "luxury" but not exactly "to luxuriate."
F owns a company that sells supplies for plastic surgery -- silicone and saline implants, botox, and so on. F's father is a surgeon, and F has gotten everything he has ever wanted in life. His father set him up in the business. F has a salesman working for him on commission, and a secretary who handles the administrative side of the business. F just signs the checks.
My friend was F's secretary for two months before he signed work book (a peculiar bit of Brazilian bureaucracy) and made her a legal employee, and then he fired her two months after she got pregnant (a huge no-no).
During her period of employment in his office, F spent as much time out of the office (sometimes on two-week trips to Rio with a friend while his wife stayed behind in Recife) as he did in the office. At least once he casually mentioned to my friend that he had spent more money the previous weekend than she earned in a month. He also told her that what he was paying her (a little over R$400 per month) was enough for her to buy a car and a house, if she was smart with her money. When he fired her he told her that "people like me work to enjoy themselves lavishly* on the weekends, people like you work to buy beans."
I met F once. He told my friend that he needed to study English, and she suggested me. He called and set up an appointment, and I went to the office to meet him. He told me, in Portuguese, that he spoke excellent English but had difficulty understanding English when it is spoken to him. He spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes, in Portuguese, about how great his English was but how he needed to improve his listening because he had to go to conferences and speak to suppliers in the US. When he finished telling me, in Portuguese, about his proficiency
in English, he asked me what my price was. I told him -- R$30 per hour -- and he replied that my price was too high, he couldn't afford it, and that he knew someone who would come to his office and give English lessons for R$8 per hour (about $3US at the time). I wished him luck with his R$8 teacher, thanked him for his interest, and left.
My friend called me last night to ask me to appear as a witness this morning, because she apparently needed someone to testify that she had in fact worked for F's company. I said yes, grumbled when I got off the phone, and rearranged my schedule so I could do it. I went to the Tribunal de Trabalho (the Brazilian court system is nothing at all like the US courts) and waited for her hearing. Her attorney arrived and told me right away that I couldn't testify -- because I knew her before she worked for F. So her husband and I waited outside of the hearing room, watching through the glass.
And the good news is that F is well and truly fucked. My friend's employment is well documented, she earned commissions a few sales that took place while the salesman was out of the office, and F signed the commissions, and her pregnancy was well documented. The only objection F's attorney raised was to the pregnancy test presented as evidence -- he asked for it to be excluded because she hadn't taken a second test two weeks later to verify that it wasn't a false positive. I think that was his hail Mary, because her son's birth certificate was also in evidence. (I also suspect, on the basis of no evidence at all, that he was hoping to get a male judge -- he didn't -- so he could use the "You know we can't trust them bitches" defense.)
F was furious. That was the best part. His eyes were red and he looked like he was barely hanging on to his self control. He knows that he has almost no chance of winning this case, but his pride made him refuse the possibility of a settlement. He will, in all likelihood, have to pay seven months' salary (the pregnancy) plus another four (I think, although it might be as low as two) months' salary (maternity leave), plus damages, and then additional fines (which probably won't go to my friend). It's all too rare in Brazil that people like F have to pay for their mistreatment of others. It's too bad I couldn't hammer a nail or two into his coffin, but it was still a great morning.
*The verb he used, "luxar," doesn't have a direct translation to English -- it's the verb form of "luxury" but not exactly "to luxuriate."
posted by Venha Futuro at 4:38 PM
2 Comments:
Glad F got fucked. The courts and companies are something else. Reading this post makes me think I should post about my 10-month lawsuit against Light here last year/this year.
I'd love to hear about that lawsuit, if writing about it isn't too frustrating for you. It's depressing how Brazil is so completely under the thumb of the richest 2 or 3 percent.
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