National floor for nursing is approved by the House committee

The Special Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved this Thursday (7) a proposal to amend the Constitution that establishes the national salary floor for nurses, technicians and nursing assistants and midwives.

The text was approved in a symbolic vote and, now, goes to the Plenary of the House. The PEC had already been approved in the Senate.

The objective of the is to guarantee legal certainty to the bill that provides for the new floors for nursing professionals.

The project has already been approved in Congress, but the Chamber of Deputies has not yet led to 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.

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).

According to the PEC rapporteur, deputy Carmen Zanotto (Citizenship-SC), nursing is the largest professional category in the health field in Brazil. The parliamentarian mentioned that the category is composed of 1.8 million professionals, 85.1% belonging to the female sex.

“Covid-19 has definitively revealed the importance of SUS and of all health professionals, who have spared no effort on the front line of facing the pandemic, unfortunately causing, due to the precarious and unhealthy conditions, the death of 872 valuable nursing professionals, with irreparable losses for hundreds of families”, he said, in the justification of the project.