At the beginning of this year, the Plenary of the Superior Labor Court established 21 binding theses and admitted 14 new incidents of repetitive appeals. There was also a provision for improving the wording of the theses before sending them to the ministers for final approval.  

Binding understandings affirm and consolidate understandings of the Superior Court, in order to bring legal certainty to the country. All 21 binding theses published are understandings issued by the TST collegiate body, without any divergence between them.  

One of the theses standardized by the TST that generated a binding understanding was dealt with in RRAg 20444-44.2022.5.04.0811, an understanding was issued in the TRT of origin by a majority of votes reforming the sentence handed down by the magistrate in the case, to condemn the defendant to pay compensation for moral damages for the search that the employee was subjected to in the company.  

At the TST, the ministers, when analyzing the discussion in the case, understood that carrying out a merely visual search of employees' belongings, as long as it is carried out in an impersonal, general manner and without physical contact or exposing the worker to a humiliating and vexatious situation, does not constitute an unlawful act capable of generating compensable moral damages.  

Therefore, searching employees at work is possible, but it is necessary that the search is not carried out on just one employee, that it is done in a way that does not expose the employee to humiliating and embarrassing conditions and that there is no physical contact during the search.  

When unifying their understanding, the ministers considered the fact that the employer has the right to conduct searches for security reasons, as well as to preserve their assets, and that the personal exposure of an employee during the search must be proven, since moral damage is highly personal. The standardization of the understanding will affect countless lawsuits pending in the labor courts that discuss the matter.  

Therefore, in order to avoid any harm to the employer, the recommendation is that, if necessary, the search of employees should be carried out in an impersonal manner, without humiliating or embarrassing exposure and without physical contact. This is also the recommendation we make to our clients, in order to avoid labor liabilities due to searches carried out in the workplace.