Guedes team defends administrative reform for readjustment, and Congress resists

Minister Paulo Guedes’ team (Economy) sees space to try to resume discussions on administrative reform in exchange for future salary readjustments for public servants, who are mobilizing around a possible one-off stoppage or even a general strike for an increase.

The strategy, however, is rejected even by government leaders in Congress. The assessment of the support base for President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is that, as 2022 is an election year, the reform will remain locked, as it is a measure that generates political attrition, including for the president.

When asking the government to take a stand against the pressure from the civil service for a general readjustment, Guedes argued to ministers that the reduction in expenses with the reform could be used to pay for a salary increase for those who are on active duty. But only after approval of the reform.

The minister’s plan does not find support in Congress or within the political wing of the government, according to members of the Planalto Palace.

The government leader in the Chamber, Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), said that the obstacle to reform is prior to the electoral period. “There was no longer the climate for this matter,” he told leaf.

Other government supporters also reject the idea of ​​voting on administrative reform this year. This is the case of the leader of the PL, Wellington Roberto (PB), and the leader of the Republicans, Hugo Motta (PB).

Bolsonaro’s ally, deputy Captain Augusto (PL-SP), who commands the bullet bench in Congress, said that “there is not the slightest possibility of the administrative reform being approved, and that will be for the next term”.

Administrative reform is non-negotiable, says civil servants representative

Among the representatives of civil servants, the proposal to negotiate a readjustment in exchange for administrative reform is criticized.

Rudinei Marques, president of Fonacate (Permanent National Forum for Typical State Careers), said that the administrative reform is non-negotiable.

“It makes no sense to guarantee the readjustment on the one hand and, on the other, to endorse the disfigurement of the Brazilian public service,” he said.

Marques recalled that the readjustment under discussion would be restricted to about 1 million federal employees, while the administrative reform would impact more than 10 million civil servants — when considering those linked to states and municipalities. “Which proves they are not related issues.”

Carlos Silva, vice-president of the union that represents labor auditors (Sinait), said there was no chance for a resumption of discussion on administrative reform.

“It would not be possible and it would be paradoxical to negotiate the extinction of the public service as conceived by the Citizen Constitution”, stated Silva.

Representatives of other entities heard by the report also stated that the resources foreseen in the Budget for possible readjustments are too low to convince the civil service to defend the reform. If everyone receives a linear increase, the percentage would be less than 1%.

In addition, they reinforced the criticism of the administrative reform, which they assess as horrible and terrible for the public service.

Bolsonaro’s signal to readjust the remuneration of federal police officers triggered a unified movement of several careers in the civil service to pressure the Planalto to grant raises to other servers.

Even on vacation, Guedes even sent messages to ministers and government officials asking for support to prevent a broad salary readjustment. According to him, if a general concession is made, the country could go bankrupt.

The Budget provides for R$ 1.7 billion for salary readjustments to civil servants, but there is no provision in the text for the use of this amount exclusively for police careers. Therefore, several civil servants unions are mobilizing to obtain part of the resources.

According to the government’s calculations, each linear increase of 1% to all civil servants generates an impact of R$ 3 billion for the Union.

Representatives of the civil service elite say that most federal civil servants are 27.2% off their salary, as there has been no readjustment since 2017.

In his speech to try to convince members of the government to bar the civil service agenda, Guedes even mentioned that, as the administrative reform reduces expenses by R$ 30 billion a year, it would be possible to increase the salaries of civil servants by 10%.

However, without the reform, the broad adjustment will end up generating more inflation, argued the minister.

Reform provides for hiring without stability

The government’s administrative reform proposal provides for new types of hiring of civil servants without the stability that exists today (ie, they would have more possibilities of dismissal).

Among these types of hiring, the government suggested the indefinite term contract (which required approval in a public competition, but without stability), the experience bond (which would be a two-year stage after the public contest with a probationary period before being effectively appointed ) and the fixed-term bond (for temporary contracts).

The proposal was modified by Congress, which removed from the text items such as the bond for an indefinite period and the experience as a stage of public tender. The proposal also removes perceived skewed benefits received by some servers and other items.

Approved by a special committee of the Chamber of Deputies, the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) is ready to enter the voting agenda in the plenary of the House. But the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), has already reported that the government lacks commitment to advance the text.

The civil servants’ strike movement is awaiting the opening of formal negotiations with the government in January.

So far, there have only been occasional and separate meetings, for example, between the Civil House and the Federal Revenue Service. Other careers from the Ministry of Economy met with the heads of the areas.

With no progress, union mobilization expands every day towards the first unified measure: the strike on January 18th. In addition, another two-day shutdown is planned for the following week.

In case of failure in the negotiations, representatives of the servers will start to discuss a general strike in February. The movement was started by careers of the civil service elite, such as the Federal Revenue and the Central Bank.