Server reset is a Brumadinho, says Guedes

In messages sent to ministers and members of the government, minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) asked for support against pressure from public servants for a wide salary readjustment.

In a sequence of 16 text messages, Guedes made an analogy to the rupture of the Brumadinho (MG) dam on January 25, 2019.

“If we increase wages and the disease returns, WE BREAK!”, wrote the minister. “Brumadinho: small successive leaks until the dam explodes and they all die in the mud”, says another message.

Guedes once again defended administrative reform as an instrument to restructure careers. And he said he also cited the defeat of former Argentine president Mauricio Macri in the 2019 elections. Macri had a liberal profile and delivered the country into crisis.

“WITHOUT IT [reforma administrativa], general readjustment for civil servants is INFLATION RISING, BRUMADINHO AND MACRI in the elections! We have to stay FIRM!”, wrote the minister.

After the federal police lobby takes effect and corporations secure resources for salary increases in 2022, several categories of the federal public service meet this Wednesday (29) to discuss a campaign for readjustment next year.

One of the alternatives being debated is a general strike for one or two days as a way of putting pressure on the Planalto Palace to open a dialogue with civil servants.

The increase to police officers was a request by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Only PF, PRF (Federal Highway Police) and Depen (National Penitentiary Department), in addition to community health agents, obtained an adjustment forecast within the civil service. The budget foresees R$1.7 billion for the readjustment for these corporations.

This triggered a stampede in the top positions of the Revenue and Central Bank – a way to pressure the government to grant the salary increase to more categories.

In one of the messages sent by Guedes, the minister stated that the country is going through a “war economy against the pandemic”.

“Those who ask for a raise now do not want to pay for the war against the virus. They are saying: ‘I’ve already had my vaccine now I want salary replacement: I WILL NOT PAY FOR THE WAR ON THE VIRUS'”, he wrote.

The economic team tries to control public spending after the sharp increase in spending in 2020 and 2021 to contain the coronavirus and the disease’s effects on the economy.

In the messages, Guedes wrote that, last year, the pandemic toppled the country, but that, in 2021, “Brazil rose and brought down the disease”.

According to him, the projection for next year is that “it will fall [a] inflation, we will continue to generate jobs and income, investments will rise and we will resume growth”.

But, concerned about the impact on public accounts of the pressure to increase civil servants’ salaries, he said he did not see problems in restructuring a career, especially if it was within the administrative reform.

Guedes argued that this reform would cut R$30 billion per year, which would make room for a 10% increase in civil servants’ salaries, but only after the reform. “Valuing the current civil service, as it would be zero to zero”, he concluded.

In the end-of-year balance, on December 17, Guedes had already said that granting readjustments to all servers would be a disgrace to future generations. The Ministry of Economy, however, even asked Congress to set aside R$ 2.5 billion for increases for police officers, an amount defended by President Bolsonaro.

“If everyone has these increases, it is a disgrace to future generations. Then inflation will return, we will plunge into a dark past, we will snowball into debt. Our role is to ensure that this does not happen,” said the minister at occasion.