Working in Brazil and Other Interesting Facts

Papai has taken the time to discuss at length some of the labor laws and work practices in Brazil- with his co-workers.  We've since discussed these things with a variety of Brazilians and confirmed that yes, this is frequnetly how things are run.  The main thing you'll notice is how the government and laws completely favor the worker.  Prepare to have your mind blown.

1. Employers are required by law to pay for your transportation to and from work.
2. Your employer pays for your lunch, which is their main meal of the day.  Every one gets these little Cielo credit cards which they can use at most restaurants and at some grocery stores.  They recieve about $24 reias per day.   To give you an idea, a MeDonald's meal is about $18-20 reais but there are also a lot of buffet restaurants where you pay for your plate of lunch by the kilo.  Our favorite pizza buffet is about $20 reais/person for all you can eat with a salad buffet and dessert.  Drinks are extra-$4 reias for water, $6-7 for natural juices or soda.  My friend's husband says sometimes he uses the money at the grocery store and brings his lunch.  This stretches their budget a little farther.
3. Employees are GUARANTEED an 8% raise every year.
4. Employees are REQUIRED BY LAW to take 30 days of vacation IN A ROW.  They can break it into two vacation periods of 10 days and 20 days if they want but that's it.  This is in addition to getting off ALL HOLIDAYS.  (And remember, this is Brazil, folks--they have a LOT of holidays.) However, if the holidays fall on a weekend, they do not get any extra days off work. They can sell back 10 of their vacation days for some extra pay.  Some employers will then allow their employees to split their 20 days of vacation into 2 breaks of 10 days each but they have to be careful bec
5. At the end of the year, employees receive an extra month's worth of pay.
6. When they take their 30 day holiday, they receive 1/3 of a month's pay as a bonus. 
7. Employers must match and put into savings so much of each employees salary (I forget the number now, I'll have to check.)  If an employee gets fired they get all the money the company put away for them.  If an employee quits, they don't get that money.  So it's a common occurance that if someone NEEDS to quit a job, they do everything they can to get fired rather than quit. Usually this occurs with lower wage type workers.  Those who are more educated tend to care more about building good relationships in their careers.
8. Employers can only fire an employee if they miss work for 10 or more days in a row.  Some people (Rodrigo says the less educated people usually) take advantage of that and only show up every 10th day.  It's likely they have a second job the rest of the time.

WATER SPORTS Vocabulary in Brazil

We've had to learn lots of new vocabulary to communicate all these sports we've seen at the beach.  Luckily, a lot words in Portuguese are spelled the same or similar as in English--just said with a Portuguese translation OR they are said almost the same way as in English but they are spelled they way the word would be spelled in Portuguese. 

Examples:

English = Portuguese

kayak = caiaque (sounds almost like English--spelling in Portuguese to imitate sound in English)

paddle boad = stand -up (In English, very literal, huh?)

snorkel = snorkel (spelled same, pronounced with Portuguese accent)

dolphin =golfinho (sounds very similar to the English word)