Exclusive independent contractor: greater legal certainty for the contracting party or better disguise for the employment relationship?

Abstract

The Labor Reform, approved by the National Congress as a matter of urgency and without qualified debate, created the exclusive independent contractor and, with it, the uncertainty about its real meaning in the labor world, which can be either to give greater legal certainty to the contracting party or to legalize the so-called "pejotização", phenomenon which distorts the employment relationship by shifting an employee into a service provider masked as a legal entity. In view of this scenario, using bibliographic search, this paper analyzes whether there is a risk of weakening workers' rights and, if there is one, to verify what its impact on the social security system would be. Also examines the individualizing presuppositions of this new legal figure opposed to the employment relationships characteristics in order to delimit its applicability and establish its harmonization with the other work modalities, concluding that it is restricted to specific situations and that the legislators purpose cannot be understood as the legalization of "pejotização", but as an attempt to grant the contractors greater legal certainty.