Evidentiary difficulties in Labor Law and their implications in social security sphere:

a issue of “communicating vessels”

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the difficulties faced by plaintiffs who intends to prove the facts that constitute labor rights and, then, describe how these complexities hamper the access to Social Security benefits. By a literature review, the research aimed to explore the connections between the Labor Law and Social Security Law, in order to indicate how a same evidentiary arsenal can support both labor and social security claims. Moreover, the paper focused on the following especific objectives: (i) by the metaphor of “communicating vessels”, expose the doctrines that deal with the proximity of the lawsuits involving labor rights with the lawsuits involving social security rights, with special emphasis in the evidentiary elements; (ii) list some evidential difficulties faced by plaintiffs who litigate in the Labor Justice (acknowledge of employment relationship in the context of informal work, prove of physical and psychological illness from the precariousness of the work environment, prove of moral harassment), in order to indicate its repercussions in Social Security; and (iii) propose solutions to reduce the difficulties that permeate the prove of the facts that constitute labor and social security rights. Finally, it was conclued that the evidentiary difficulties linked to labor and social security rights must be clarified, mainly to sketch techniques capable of maximizing the access to such rights, wich are essencial for human dignity.