Revision of the Ports Law promises to transform the sector in Brazil

Ministro do TST e presidente da Ceportos, Douglas Alencar falou sobre relatório aprovado no último dia 23 e destacou virtudes do marco legal (Samuel Andrade/Especial para A Tribuna)

A revolution in Brazil’s port sector. This is the outcome that Minister of the Superior Labor Court (TST) Douglas Alencar anticipates following Congress's approval of the revision of the Ports Law (12.815/2013). Alencar, who chairs the Commission of Jurists for the Legal Review and Exploration of Ports and Port Facilities (Ceportos), gave a lecture on the topic this Tuesday (29) at the 2nd Porto & Mar Meeting, organized by Grupo Tribuna in Brasília.

“We need to be bold and have faith. This new legal framework will bring many virtues. We clearly expect that if Congress approves this new model, it will spark a virtuous revolution in all areas of the port sector in Brazil”, said the minister.

He refers to concession and leasing contracts, monitoring processes, private port authorizations, and workforce matters. “We must overcome bottlenecks and regulatory hurdles that are not serving Brazil well”.

Ceportos approved the final report on the 23rd. It is a draft bill to be delivered to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), later this week.

“This is a State agenda, not a government agenda. The strategic importance of the port sector is undeniable. Without economic development, there is no social development. We believe that the National Congress will recognize its importance and ensure that the process advances as quickly as possible.”

Workers Alencar acknowledges that the labor agenda in the law's revision is the most sensitive but assures that the aim is not to diminish job quality, but rather to open the market for more people to gain qualifications and compete for positions at terminals in public and private ports. Casual workers object to the provision ending exclusivity.

“Reality has shown that, in many cases, it is impossible to retain workers due to lack of interest. We aim to break this exclusivity, but we do not want to eliminate casual work. This will not happen because there are processes, operations, and types of cargo that, due to seasonality, will always require casual workers. ”

According to the minister, innovation is essential for market integration, expansion, and openness.

Criticism of the approved text The President of the National Federation of Stevedores (FNE), José Adilson Pereira, participated in the panel discussing the Ports Law revision. In his view, workers will be adversely affected, and the proposal lacks stability.

“It totally degrades the workforce. Port work becomes (with the revision) merely ship and pier. What kind of economic freedom is it that ends the Port Labor Management Authority (Ogmo)? Collective bargaining is abolished, leaving workers' lives in the hands of companies.”

Aristides Russi Júnior, Executive Director of JBS Terminals, acknowledges issues with labor, which needs updating without degradation. “We need to address market asymmetries. The workforce is prepared for productivity, but some areas have a 54% higher labor cost.”

Marcelo Sammarco, a lawyer specializing in Maritime, Port, and Regulatory Law, spoke about sector decentralization. “Ceportos incorporated the aspirations of Brazil’s port and infrastructure sector with this decentralization theme. We had Federal Law 8.630 (from 1993), which was extremely modern for its time”, he said, emphasizing the need to update the legislation.

Jacqueline Wendpap, Executive Director of the Brazilian Piloting Institute and Ceportos member, commented that the drafting process anticipates self-regulation in the sector. “This self-regulation chamber (proposed in the law), with the ability to mediate and arbitrate, will be optional. As self-regulation progresses, external regulation may often become unnecessary.”

Attorney Juliana Oliveira Domingues, a teacher of Law and Economic Regulation at USP and Ceportos member, emphasized the importance of legal security with the proposal. “We are experiencing an environment of dialogue with alternative dispute resolution methods. Often, we can prevent issues from spending years in court, improving our international image.”

Carlos Mariotti, Executive Manager of Industrial Policy at the Brazilian Tree Industry (Ibá), believes the agenda is beneficial for the sector. “Today, we are the second-largest (country) producer and the leading exporter of pulp. We are a global reference. We need to share with the world what we do. We are highly efficient but also embedded in the logistics chain.”

Finally, Carlos Müller, Executive Manager of Institutional and Governmental Relations at the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove), notes that bottlenecks in ports prevent the sector from being more competitive. “Everything is related to logistics, and this modernization of the ports law is essential for our sector, which holds substantial commodities.”