Superior Council of Labor Justice (CSJT): what it does and how to contact it

The Superior Council of Labor Justice (CSJT) was established in June 2005, following the Judiciary Reform (Constitutional Amendment 45/2004), with the mission of unifying, modernizing and strengthening the operation of the Brazilian labor judiciary.

The CSJT is not a court. It is a body of administrative, budgetary, financial and asset supervision of the first- and second-instance labor courts, with binding decisions on the Labor Courts (Varas do Trabalho) and the Regional Labor Courts (TRTs) throughout the country.

How the CSJT is composed

Its composition is mixed. The CSJT includes the president and vice-president of the Superior Labor Court (TST) and the inspector-general of Labor Justice (ex officio members), plus three justices elected by the TST Full Court, five TRT presidents (one per geographic region) and one magistrate representing the first instance. All serve two-year terms.

What the CSJT has done

Over two decades, the CSJT approved more than 400 resolutions and coordinated initiatives that transformed the labor courts. Among the milestones are:

• the implementation of the Electronic Court Process (PJe), which led to 100% electronic handling of cases from 2017;
• the creation of the Safe Work Program and the Program to Combat Child Labor;
• the establishment of quotas for Afro-descendants in outsourced contracts.

More recently, the Council launched Chat-JT, a generative artificial intelligence tool available free of charge to magistrates, staff and interns of the labor courts.

How to contact the CSJT

The CSJT does not receive complaints on the merits of a case or complaints against court decisions. Those must be addressed to the TRT or the TST, depending on the instance.

What falls to the CSJT are representations about the administrative conduct of first- and second-instance labor courts: structural delay, failures in service delivery, accessibility deficiencies and administrative irregularities of the Labor Courts and the TRTs.

Submissions may be sent through the Labor Justice Ombudsman's Office, which works as a channel between citizens and the CSJT, and through the Labor Justice Inspector-General's Office, in cases involving the conduct of first- and second-instance magistrates. Follow-up can be done with the protocol number generated at the time of registration.

Why the CSJT matters

Knowing the CSJT means understanding that the labor courts also have an administrative oversight body, distinct from the TST, which standardizes case law, and from the Inspector-General's Office, which oversees conduct.

For the worker who faces a structurally deficient labor court, systemic delay or accessibility barriers, the CSJT is the right channel for demanding institutional efficiency. It is not the way to reverse an unfavorable decision, but to demand that the structure work.

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