NEGOCIAÇÃO COLETIVA EM TEMPOS DE PANDEMIA: UMA ANÁLISE DA EFETIVIDADE NEGOCIAL NO ÂMBITO DAS EMPRESAS PARAIBANAS DE DISTRIBUIÇÃO DE ENERGIA ELÉTRICA

Abstract

The year of 2020 and 2021 have been marked by the coronavirus-COVID 19 pandemic, crisis that has never been seen before and unprecedented in history. Responsible, in the moment, for 4 million more deaths and 160 million infected (WHO, 2021). In Brazil, due to negationist policies and poor crisis management, the cases are alarming, there are more than 15.5 million cases and more than 400,000 deaths. The pandemic caused a series of changes in various spheres of society, and caused considerable impacts on health, economy, and education. In addition, the changes caused by the pandemic in the work structure in Brazil were serious, intensifying the capital and labor relationship making it difficult to maintain employment, as well as putting economic health at risk. To solve and reduce the impacts of the public health crisis the Federal Government issued during the current period, a series of laws, provisional measures, and decrees which aimed to make the current labor law more flexible and to create new legal institutes. In this scenario of intense legislative activity, the collective norms between unions and employers become even more important, while they are fundamental institutes in the regulation of working conditions and the guarantee of a negotiated balance between employees and employers. Given this context, the present work aims to analyze if the collective instruments made between two electricity distribution companies in the State of Paraíba and unions were able to cover topics that minimized the impacts of the pandemic in work relations. Questioning this which, after the development of research, was answered positively, whereas it was possible to perceive the importance of the collective instruments signed between the entities mentioned above in the process of regulating institutes that have ensured the reduction of pandemic impacts on labor relations.