A company was ordered to pay R$10,000 in moral damages for coercing an employee to return to work shortly after suffering a miscarriage.

Even after presenting a medical certificate recommending a 15-day leave, the employee received a call from her supervisor, “in an imposing and threatening tone,” informing her that she could be dismissed if she did not immediately return to her duties.

Under pressure, she returned to her position and worked during the period in which she was entitled to medical leave. Cases like this may gain an additional legal basis with the recently enacted Parental Bereavement Law (Law No. 15,139/25), which establishes the National Policy for the Humanization of Maternal and Parental Grief.

The legislation ensures rights and support in cases of gestational, fetal, and neonatal loss, in addition to setting out humanized guidelines in healthcare services, such as separate accommodation, the right to a companion during childbirth, psychological support, and the right to register the baby, even in cases of stillbirth.

In the labor sphere, it reinforces rights such as maternity and paternity leave and provides for more humane treatment of parents by recognizing bereavement. Although the law does not directly amend labor legislation, it may have an indirect effect by increasing awareness of the issue and encouraging more humanized judicial decisions.