Labor Structural Litigation as an
Instrument for the Implementation of the Energy Transition
Name: LAVÍNIA DUMER KNIKKINK
Publication date: 06/05/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| CLAUDIO IANNOTTI DA ROCHA | Presidente |
| RAIMUNDO SIMÃO DE MELO | Examinador Externo |
| VALESCA RAIZER BORGES MOSCHEN | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This research aims to analyze the structural labor process as an instrument for
protecting the workplace environment and implementing the energy transition, in light
of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. The research is based
on the observation that numerous structural dysfunctions present in industrial
production chains perpetuate precarious and unsustainable working conditions,
highlighting the need for legal action aimed at transforming these structures. The
research problem is to understand how the structural labor process can contribute to
protecting situations related to the progressiveness of the workplace environment. The
central hypothesis holds that the structural labor process constitutes an effective
instrument for promoting the energy transition and ensuring a healthy workplace by
driving institutional and productive reforms that reduce the impacts of the fossil-fuelbased industrial model. The methodology adopted is qualitative, with a deductive
approach, based on documentary analysis of legal literature, the Constitution of the
Federative Republic of Brazil, the Consolidation of Labor Laws, and the Code of Civil
Procedure, as well as case law from the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior
Labor Court. The research is anchored in the theoretical frameworks of Edilson
Vitorelli, regarding the structure and purpose of the structural process, and of Cláudio
Iannotti da Rocha, regarding the jurisdiction of the Labor Court to protect the workplace
environment. The aim is to demonstrate that the Labor Court, by exercising expanded
and dialogical jurisdiction, can play a central role in the realization of fundamental
socio-environmental rights and in the consolidation of a just and sustainable energy
transition. The study falls within the area of concentration “Justice, Constitution and
Process” and the research line “Justice Systems, Constitutionality and Protection of
Individual and Collective Rights”, of the stricto sensu Postgraduate Program in
Procedural Law at the Federal University of Espírito Santo.
