The legal and social treatment of workplace accident cases in the Brazilian National Labor Council (1934–1945)

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical formation of legal protection for workplace accidents in Republican Brazil, focusing on the gap between normative expansion and institutional implementation through the decisions of the National Labor Council (CNT) between 1934 and 1945. The object consists of case files located in the CNT archival collection at the Superior Labor Court, complemented by stenographic records of deliberative sessions related to some of the cases. Methodologically, the study combines documentary analysis of primary sources with a review of the literature and normative contextualization, situating the decisions within the broader process of formation and contestation of social rights. The findings indicate that the CNT functioned as a relevant decision-making body within a context of still incomplete institutionalization of Labor Justice. However, effectiveness was often partial, revealing internal tensions between efforts toward decisional uniformity, confirming that protection for workers who were victims of workplace accidents depended less on statutory text and more on the institutional capacity to transform formal rights into concrete redress.