Company ordered to compensate children after mother’s death from Covid-19

The Superior Labor Court (TST) denied the appeal request from Empresa de Desenvolvimento de Itabira Ltda. (Itaurb), from Itabira, Minas Gerais, against the decision that condemned her to pay compensation for moral damages to the four children of an employee in the covid-19 risk group who was forced to work during the pandemic.

The action was filed by the children of the street sweeper and garbage collector who died from the virus a month after returning to work, still during the pandemic. The children alleged that Itaurb knew that the worker was part of the risk group, as she had hypertension, diabetes and obesity.

According to the children, the company is responsible for the employee’s death, because, in addition to the activities she carried out involving a greater risk of contamination than other people in society, Itaurb directly contributed to her death, because it called her to work exposed to the viruses and without adequate protective equipment.

According to the court’s decision, there was no justification for summoning the employee, as she was kept at home, even seven months after the publication of a national standard that would have allowed her to return to work.

The Third Panel of the Court highlighted that, according to the company’s own internal regulations, the employee’s return, under these conditions, depended, among other requirements, on an express declaration from the immediate supervisor, attesting to the need for the worker’s physical presence, which did not occur.

Furthermore, the records showed that the worker returned to face-to-face work on February 2nd and the first disposable masks were delivered on the 11th of the same month and the fabric one on March 13th.

Given this situation, the TRT maintained the value of compensation for the damages suffered by the children, with the death of the worker: pain, suffering and psychological damage. Regarding compensation for the moral damages suffered by the deceased, the TRT considered that the physical and moral pain suffered by the worker should also be compensated. The compensation for the moral damage suffered by the employee, transferable to heirs, was set at R$20 thousand.