Provas digitais no processo do trabalho: equilíbrio entre eficácia probatória e direitos fundamentais

Abstract

Object: This research analyzes digital evidence in labor proceedings, aiming to verify how its production and evaluation can balance the fundamental rights established in the Federal Constitution with evidentiary effectiveness. Research Problem: The increasing adoption of digital evidence in labor litigation brings advances in efficiency and accuracy but also poses challenges in reconciling fundamental rights such as adversarial principle, broad defense, privacy, and dignity. The production of such evidence may expose risks like abusive surveillance, improper use of data, and fragility in preserving validity and utility requirements. Its evaluation demands technical and legal criteria that ensure impartiality, especially given the asymmetries between employers and employees. The core issue concerns how to apply legal and technological mechanisms to secure a balance between evidentiary effectiveness and the protection of fundamental rights. Research Question: How to ensure the balance between protecting workers’ fundamental rights and evidentiary effectiveness in the production and evaluation of digital evidence in labor proceedings? Hypothesis: The use of digital evidence in labor proceedings is constitutionally valid, provided that proportionality and reasonableness in obtaining such evidence are assessed, weighing the right to proof against the protection of workers’ fundamental rights, such as privacy, intimacy, and personal data. Methodology: It consists of a qualitative documental analysis of legal literature, the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), and jurisprudence from the Superior Labor Court (TST) and Regional Labor Courts (TRTs). Starting from general premises, through deductive logical reasoning, it proposes a thesis of balancing fundamental rights in the production and evaluation of digital evidence in labor proceedings.Contributions: The research contributes to an updated interpretation of due process of law, considering the challenges posed by digital evidence in labor proceedings and reinforcing fundamental rights. It offers solutions to harmonize evidentiary production with the protection of constitutional rights such as privacy and intimacy. Practically, it suggests technical and legal parameters for the evaluation of digital evidence in this procedural context. Area of Concentration: Justice, Process and Constitution. Line of Research: Justice Systems, Constitutionality and Protection of Individual and Collective Rights.