Lula’s praise for the new labor reform in Spain was the hottest topic of news in the first week of the new year.

It is a great relief to know that topical issues, regardless of opinion about them, are still capable of breaking through the smokescreen of factoids laid by Jair Bolsonaro to divert attention from what really matters.

The world of work should be at the center of the country’s agenda in 2022 like never before. And not only because 13.5 million people are looking for work, and the unemployment rate twice the world average…

But also because we have witnessed stagnation in labor productivity, skyrocketing instability and explosive growth in informality – today, four out of ten Brazilians have no protection whatsoever.

In other words, our problem is not so much quantity as quality. It’s not just about reuniting millions of people hungry for opportunity. The challenge is to create decent jobs that make our economies more competitive and restore workers’ incomes – the lowest in four years.

What are the presidential candidates saying?

As expected, Lula’s comment drew a reaction from other presidential candidates. Governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria (PSDB) issued a memo stating that “employment will not return, resurrecting outdated laws.” He also said the 2017 revision of the Brazilian labor reform, proposed by some PT leaders, could create “legal uncertainty” and “investor distrust.”

Another Planalto candidate, Sergio Moro (Podemos), followed the same line as the Governor of São Paulo. “There are 3 proposals on the table of the pre-presidential campaign. One that will carry out the necessary reforms in the country (ours); another from a government that has completely abandoned reforms (the current government); and the third, which wants to reverse the already consolidated reforms. (EN), “Former judge Love Jato tweeted.

Ciro Gomez (PDT), in turn, for at least four years defined the labor reform, approved under Michel Temer, as “savagery”. In the last general election, he already hinted at the possibility of canceling a package of more than 100 changes to the Labor Code (CLT) approved by the National Congress.

The 2017 reform allowed unrestricted outsourcing, abolished union tax, made access to justice more difficult, and introduced “negotiation above the law” – the idea that a free agreement between workers and employers costs more than the text of the law.

Adopted on a whim, without the participation of workers’ representatives and in the midst of the period of institutional turmoil following the impeachment of Dilma Roussef, the fact is that did not immediately provide the promised millions of jobs…

Advocates of the reform today argue that the reform itself will not even create new jobs and that it takes time to prove its beneficial impact on the labor market. There was also a pandemic in the middle of the journey.

Questions to be answered

Aside from the more legitimate debate over the revision of labor reform, as it happened in Spain, the main candidates for Brazilian presidency this year will have other questions to answer.

Does it make sense to continue the wage exemption policy in 17 sectors of the economy, as President Bolsonaro did on the last day of last year?

Do job seekers have up their sleeves with program proposals for their first job that do not repeat the mistakes of the past?

Is there a plan to revitalize our industry, bring in skilled professionals, and prevent brain drain overseas?

Right now, the world of work is imposing itself on the agenda of the most brutal elections in our recent history. It remains to be seen if we will continue to debate our future as serious adults or be distracted again by penis-shaped bottle memes like in 2018.