Calama, V. Meneses Falcão & Associados
Seizure of credits arising from an employment relationship.
The seizure of severance pay awarded to an unlawfully dismissed worker is subject to the limit set out in Article 738, No. 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which establishes the unseizability of two-thirds of any payments that ensure the subsistence of the debtor.
The Supreme Court of Justice's Judgment No. 4/2025, of March 25, standardized jurisprudence, determining that the compensation awarded to a worker in lieu of reinstatement to the company, to which they would be entitled as a result of the declaration of unlawfulness of the dismissal, is partially unseizable, under the terms of Article 738, No. 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The understanding now enshrined was based on the function of that compensation, which the Judges of the Supreme Court of Justice (with the exception of one member of the Plenary of the Civil Sections, who dissented) considered to be related to the worker/debtor's subsistence guarantees. In its decision, the Court also took into account the legal preference enjoyed by the worker's claim for termination of the employment contract in case of company insolvency.