TST: an employer's counterclaim is an autonomous action and survives even if the employee drops the case

The 3rd Panel of Brazil's Superior Labor Court (TST) ruled on RRAg-100852-31.2020.5.01.0017, involving a former hospital employee who filed a labor claim against her employer. In its defense, the hospital filed a counterclaim seeking R$ 1.44 million from the employee over an alleged misappropriation of funds during her employment. After being served with the counterclaim, the employee chose to waive the main claim.

The legal basis: the counterclaim's autonomy (article 343, §2 of the Civil Procedure Code)

The Regional Labor Court of the 1st Region (Rio de Janeiro) had held that the employee's waiver of the main claim also emptied out the counterclaim, applying a restrictive reading of article 343, §2 of Brazil's Civil Procedure Code. For the TST's 3rd Panel, that provision actually says the opposite: waiving the main claim does not stop the counterclaim from proceeding, since a counterclaim is an autonomous, independent action, filed by the defendant within the same proceeding, but with its own claim and legal grounds. The panel reversed the regional court's ruling and sent the case back to the TRT for the counterclaim to be decided on the merits.

What this means for managing labor-claim exposure

The ruling reinforces that a counterclaim works as an autonomous procedural tool available to the employer, not merely as a defensive response tied to the fate of the original claim. In disputes where the company has its own documented claim against the employee, filing a counterclaim at the right stage of the defense prevents a procedural move by the opposing party, such as waiving the main claim, from emptying out the company's right to have its own claim decided on the merits.

Does your company systematically assess counterclaim potential before filing its defense in labor claims?