Panel SA: Capitals ask Barroso to keep the nursing floor suspended

Abrasf (Brazilian Association of Capital Finance Secretariats) sent STF Minister Luís Roberto Barroso a request for the maintenance of the injunction that suspended the nursing floor in September.

Barroso is the rapporteur of a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality that questions the salary increases of the category.

The request, made on Thursday (23), came shortly after Congress approved two constitutional amendments that increased nurses’ salaries. The minimum amount approved by Congress was R$4,750 for nurses, R$3,325 for nursing technicians and R$2,375 for nursing assistants and midwives.

The increases benefit professionals from public hospitals, philanthropic entities and networks that provide services with a minimum of 60% of SUS patient care. According to the text, the new floor will be funded by the financial surplus of public funds and the Social Fund.

In the document, Abrasf said that, after the approval of the two amendments, several requests were filed for the end of Barroso’s injunction. In the reading of the entity, there is still no money to finance the new floor, even with the indication of costing.

The finance secretariats claim that the allocation of salary resources is positive, however, it still depends on federal regulation and would be insufficient for not pointing out the budgetary impact on states and municipalities.

There is no consensus on this point. Abrasf’s calculations indicate that the budget gap could exceed R$ 13 billion per year, and could reach R$ 26 billion depending on the workload of professionals.

Without this specific indication of amounts in transfers, the entity projects defaults and litigation.

The government would also have to indicate whether the transfers will be made through credits, payments of expenses or another type of budgetary mechanism. There is no such forecast in the 2023 budget and president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has not indicated how he will resolve the impasse – in the campaign he criticized the suspension of the new floor.

“The idea that the injunction granted in these records can be revised should be ruled out, because it is necessary, first of all, that the National Congress beats the questions still open related to the budgetary complementation advocated by EC 127/2022, still lacking in federal law that regulates it”, said the entity.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix