Court orders reinstatement of teacher dismissed during dictatorship.
The government of Rio de Janeiro has been ordered to reinstate journalist, professor, and union leader Roberto Rodrigues da Silva Costa, who was dismissed from public service during the military regime.
Fernando Porfírio _247 - The government of Rio de Janeiro has been ordered to reinstate journalist, professor, and union leader Roberto Rodrigues da Silva Costa, who was dismissed from public service during the military regime. The decision, by unanimous vote, comes from the 5th Civil Chamber of the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice. The panel rejected an appeal filed by the State Treasury against a ruling by Judge Neuza Regina de Alvarenga Leite of the 14th Public Treasury Court.
Roberto was mistaken for a namesake who was facing military charges in the Navy's Audit Office. After being arrested in the 70s by the repressive organs of the military regime, he was forced to abandon his professional activities and live in hiding. Because of his disappearance, he was dismissed from public service for abandoning his teaching position.
In the first instance, the court recognized the union leader's right to be reinstated to his position. The judge understood that the professor's absence from work was motivated by political persecution, and that his arrest occurred due to homonymy (the same name being used by the professor).
In her decision, Judge Neuza Regina de Alvarenga Leite ruled that Roberto be reinstated to the same position he held, granting him all benefits and updating the triennial bonuses and back pay, as well as granting him retirement due to him being 70 years old.
The State of Rio filed an appeal with the Court of Justice, arguing that the right to be reinstated to the position had expired after the enactment of Law 10.559 of 2002 (Political Amnesty Law), and requested a reversal of the judgment.
However, Judge Cristina Tereza Gaulia, the rapporteur for the appeal, understood that, in this case, the statute of limitations for the right to be reinstated to the position had not expired because, according to the judge, the employee became aware of the decree from the governor of Rio, which denied his request, two months after he had already filed the lawsuit.