a little dance in TikTok with two friends caused Esmeralda Mello, 21, to be fined by the Labor Court and convicted of bad faith litigation after posting the content on her profile on the short-video social network. The other dance participants were also fined.
Esmeralda filed a lawsuit against the jewelry store where she worked as a saleswoman in São Paulo. She asked for recognition of the employment relationship of a time prior to the one registered in her work card.
The woman also went to the labor court to ask for moral damages for the omission of registration and for the humiliating treatment she had in the workplace. After giving testimony, the young woman posted the video on her TikTok profile with her friends.
Nonetheless, Esmeralda’s friends who appear in the video were also witnesses chosen by her to testify in the action. In the images, they dance and the caption is written: “Me and my friends going to sue the toxic company”.
After learning about the video, the jewelry store presented it to Justice as proof that Esmeralda had friendship with both and, therefore, could not be witnesses. In view of the post, the judge in the case annulled the testimonies of Esmeralda’s friends.
“I didn’t regret the post, but it had a repercussion that I didn’t expect. I had a million views on the video and I didn’t expect it to resonate like this. My cell phone is locked from so many messages. But I’m taking it all in a good way. the saying goes: making lemons into a beautiful lemonade”, Esmeralda told the G1 portal.
Despite the video, the judge also ordered the jewelry store to pay the labor rights demanded by emerald, such as the 13th proportional salary, proportional vacation with increase, FGTS and a fine of 40% plus overtime.
The company also had to pay a 2% fine on top of the value of the case for claiming, in an audio message, that public lawyers just “want to screw the employer” and that they “are bums”.
