The Brazilian Federal Government has just published Decree 10,060/2019. The Decree plays a role in regulating the innovations introduced by the Brazilian ‘Outsourcing Law’ (Law 13,429, which amended Law 6.019/1974), which was part of the 2017 labour reform. It limits the possibilities for creative interpretations of the brief text of the Law relating to the use of temporary workers. By way of example, it regulates permission to engage temporary workers for predictable seasonal work and establishes equivalent employment rights for temporary and permanent workers.

Besides that, the following aspects of the Decree are worth mentioning because they add relevant aspects to the provisions of the Law.

Article 11

Temporary services invoices shall distinguish between amounts that correspond to employment and tax dues from administrative fees. This was already good business practice, though not always observed due to a lack of clarity in the law. The new provision gives the contracting company more clarity.

Article 12

Permission to subcontract temporary workers from another agency. While this was not prohibited, a lack of clarity made such possibility very uncertain.

Articles 18 and 19

Permission to engage temporary workers in any job, whether it is core business work or not. There was no prohibition on doing so to date, but the lack of clarity created confusion between the engagement of temporary workers for the performance of ancillary work and outsourcing.

Article 20

Temporary workers will have the right to compensation equivalent to permanent workers in their professional category. This was traditional best practice and it should not be confused with the provision of s1 of article 4-C of the Law, which provides for the possibility of a temporary services agreement stipulating equivalent salary between temporary workers and permanent ones.