Senate approves proposal that includes national floor for nurses in the Constitution

The Senate approved this Thursday (2) a proposal to amend the Constitution that establishes the national salary floor for nurses, technicians and nursing assistants and midwives.

The proposal was approved in the first round by 71 votes in favor and none against — 49 votes in favor were required. In the second round, there were 72 votes in favor and none against. The PEC now goes to the Chamber of Deputies

In practice, the PEC was prepared and approved to provide legal certainty for the national floor of the category.

A bill providing for the minimum wage for nursing had already been approved by the National Congress earlier this month. However, the proposal was not even forwarded by the Chamber of Deputies for presidential sanction, as there was fear of a veto by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) or even lawsuits. This was because there was a risk that the proposal could be a defect of initiative.

“We needed to provide legal certainty for this process. The project voted unanimously here in the Federal Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies guaranteed a dream for these professionals, but in part we could be sanctioning a law that would cause legal uncertainty in the next step, in a next period of its application”, said the rapporteur of the proposal, senator Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil – AP).

“Because, according to the Brazilian Constitution, the National Congress cannot legislate on the budget of states and municipalities. That is, in part, in the case of private companies, we could. But when we enter into the income and expenses of an entity of the Federation, we could end up bringing a legal disorder that, in the end, in the end, would not bring the result we wanted for this vote”, he added.

Therefore, the text of the PEC determines that a federal law will establish the national salary floors for nurses, technicians and nursing assistants and midwives. That is, it allows the previously approved bill to have legal conditions to be applied.

The project creates a floor of R$ 4,750 for nurses. Nursing technicians would receive 70% of this amount, and nursing assistants and midwives, 50%. According to the proposal, the value will be adjusted annually based on the INPC (National Consumer Price Index).

The rapporteur rejected amendments to the text of the PEC, such as the one that intended to attribute to the Union the responsibility for all costs of the salary floor of state, municipal and district civil servants.

As happened during the approval of the bill, parliamentarians recognized that there is still no solution to finance the costs of the new national nursing floor, but only pointed out possible sources.

Davi Alcolumbre said that “inevitably” the release of gambling will be one of the sources of the new floor. The speech generated a great discussion between parliamentarians for and against the games.

“There is even a proposal in this House, because the bill that authorizes games in Brazil will inevitably be a source of revenue not only to fulfill the floor because we have insurance there, in the transfer of the FPM [Fundo de Participação dos Municípios] and the PEF [Fundo de Participação dos Estados] for the states, more than R$6.5 billion more”, he said.

Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA) took the opportunity to defend the proposal on the games. He said that nursing professionals would leave the session “ululating” because of the new floor, but that there was still the source to pay for it.

On the other hand, Eduardo Girão (Podemos-CE) called the attempt to advance the issue of games to be “opportunistic”, using the need to find resources for the nursing floor as blackmail.

“This opportunistic speech that gambling will bring income, money to pay these professional specimens is bravado”, said the senator, who pointed out as a possible source of income the royalties from oil, the exemption of the payroll and even the extinction of the rapporteur’s amendments.

“It’s blood money”, he added, in relation to the games.