CCJ of the Chamber approves PEC that establishes a law on the salary floor for nurses

The CCJ (Commission on Constitution and Justice) of the Chamber of Deputies approved the admissibility of the PEC that establishes the national salary floor for nurses, technicians and nursing assistants and midwives.

The opinion on admissibility, prepared by deputy Bia Kicis (PL-DF), was approved in a symbolic vote. The proposal needs to be analyzed by a special commission before going to the Plenary. The text had already been approved by the Senate on June 2.

The PEC was prepared and approved to provide legal certainty for the national level of the category.

A bill providing for the minimum wage for nursing had already been approved by the National Congress. 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 of lawsuits. This was because there was a risk that the proposal could be a defect of initiative.

The text of the PEC determines that a federal law will establish the national salary floors for nurses, technicians and nursing assistants and midwives. In other words, 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).

Deputy Carmen Zanotto (Cidadania-SC) thanked all the deputies who approved the report. She said that this was a way of giving fair recognition to the category, which had even more visibility in the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is a category that at no time limited itself or refused to go to the front line of Covid-19. Brazilian nursing, which makes up 70% of the workforce of health workers, and that of these 70%, 90% are women with two or three contracts who have been waiting for many years for the possibility of improving their salary”, he said.

In the Senate, 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.

Senator Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil – AP) 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.