The Legal Impacts of COVID-19 in the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry

will focus on the following four axes, pleaded to the Brazilian Federal Government, as to safeguard the activity of travel agency: a) measures in labour relations; b) measures in the tax area; c) measures for granting credit; and d) measures in the relationship between consumers and suppliers. 2. Measures in Labour Relations Initially, still in the middle of March 2020, before the Federal Government adopted any measures, in all Brazilian states, the unions of the companies had already started to deal with those of the workers, aiming to streamline and negotiate measures to protect jobs given the difficulties faced by companies. These were home office work, anticipated vacations and, in some cases, the reduction of wages and work hours. After the companies’ and workers' trade unions had made several collective agreements, comprising these measures, the Brazilian Government needed to edit the Provisional Measure No. 927/2020 3 , in order to authorise, at the national level, the validity of home office work, as well as the anticipation of holidays, among other reductions in bureaucracy. However, these measures were not enough to preserve jobs throughout Brazil. Especially for the travel agency sector, which without selling ‘nothing’, still needed to comply with labour obligations. Following a very strong effort from all the representative entities of the Brazilian tourism sector, which requested the direct support of the Ministry of Tourism of Brazil, but also articulating with the other areas of the Brazilian Government, such as the Ministry of Economy, the benefits and options to guarantee jobs in the tourism sector were expanded. As a result, the Government issued the Provisional Measure No. 936/2020 4 , thus bringing new alternatives so that entrepreneurs could try to protect their employees' jobs, considering a scenario that, day after day, was only aggravated. This new norm started to authorise reductions in wages and reductions in working hours, with options of 25%, 50% or up to 70%, however conditioning to some salary ranges of employees, as well as, also limiting this option to no maximum 90 3 Source : http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2020/Mpv/mpv927.htm . 4 Source : http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2020/mpv/mpv936.htm .