FGV's São Paulo Law School (DIREITO GV) held last Monday, June 17, the meeting legal and constitutional implications related to the constitutional amendment of maids (?PEC das domésticas?), with the participation of eight legal experts in Constitutional, Civil, and Labor Law, professors at the school and at other educational institutions.

Brazil took a step forward to achieve full democracy in social rights. But the amendment came out with many edges, without the necessary transition period. It was not labored by various segments of the society - the Congress hardly debated it, and lawyers and schools for judges were also oblivious to the discussions. And, as there was little critical mass, the press covered it slightly, which created the scaremongering we see today. This only proves that we are still a democracy in construction, says Luciano Godoy, professor at DIREITO GV.

According to Oscar Vilhena Vieira, DIREITO GV?s dean, there's no such thing as accident in the institutional field. What we had before was a qualified draft under which Brazilian society could maintain the highest levels of inequality, he believes. Vilhena explains that Amendment 72 expands the set of rights guaranteed in the sole paragraph of the art. 7 of the Brazilian Constitution, but wonders what should be done with the model of the current contract, flexible without regulation.  Can we, for instance, reduce the amount per working hour to adapt the contracts to 8 hours, as provided by the new regulations?  What about the rights acquired in previous contracts?

Answers to these questions are far from unanimous.  Everyone is anxious, wanting solutions.  But the PEC is still under discussion in the Senate.  We will only have news of the regulation by the end of the year, said Associate Justice Paul Eduardo de Oliveira. We're still in the midst of a political discussion, he explained.

The event took place in the auditorium at DIREITO GV, in São Paulo.