Working outside your role and accumulating roles in Brazil: when you can claim a pay difference

*Working outside your role (desvio de função) happens when a worker is hired for one position but regularly performs the tasks of another, better-paid one. Accumulating roles (acúmulo de função) happens when they take on another position's tasks in addition to their own. In both cases, there may be a right to pay differences or a supplement, depending on the evidence.*

Quick summary

• Working outside your role: performs another, more valued role → right to pay differences, without an automatic change of position (TST SDI-1 Case Law Guideline 125 — the TST is the Superior Labor Court).
• Accumulating roles: adds another position's tasks → may lead to a pay supplement, depending on the profession's specific law, a collective rule or a court decision.
• Legal limit: the employee undertakes services compatible with their personal condition (CLT, art. 456, sole paragraph — the CLT is Brazil's Consolidated Labor Laws).
• Evidence is decisive: tasks, frequency and comparison with the reference position.

Working outside your role vs. accumulating roles

• Working outside your role — What it is: stops doing their own tasks and does those of another position · What is claimed: the difference between the salaries
• Accumulating roles — What it is: regularly does their own tasks and those of another position · What is claimed: a pay supplement (plus)

Examples

• An administrative assistant who in practice works as an analyst.
• A salesperson who also starts making product deliveries every day.
• A driver who also takes on the role of fare collector.

Occasional tasks, or tasks compatible with the position, generally do not lead to a supplement.

How to gather evidence

1. Keep the description of the position you were hired for (contract, work card, job and salary plan).
2. Record your actual tasks with examples, dates and frequency.
3. Identify the salary of the position whose tasks you perform (job ads, colleagues, collective agreement).
4. Gather emails and orders that assigned the new tasks.
5. List witnesses.

See also Equal pay and Evidence in a labor case.

Frequently asked questions

Does working outside my role change my position?

Not automatically. What is generally recognized are the pay differences for the period.

Does accumulating roles always give the right to a supplement?

No. It depends on the profession's specific law, a collective rule or proof that the extra tasks belong to another position and are incompatible with the one you were hired for.

How long do I have to claim?

Up to 2 years after the end of the contract, covering the last 5 years.

Read more in this series

• Equal pay: when you should earn the same as a colleague
• CLT worker rights: complete guide
• Evidence in a labor case: how to gather and organize it
• Labor Court: how it works and how to file a claim
• Index: complete guide to labor rights