Retired civil servants react to readjustment of benefits instead of salaries

The proposal being studied by the government to readjust benefits such as food stamps for civil servants instead of salaries generated reactions in the civil service, especially among retirees.

If the strategy goes ahead, the inactive will be without salary readjustments.

As shown by leafthe government is studying raising the value of benefits to try to appease the generalized pressure for better remuneration.

The measure would be a way of contemplating the entire civil service, instead of granting increases only to the police categories, as President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) waved.

The strategy would only use the amount of R$ 1.7 billion available in the Budget to raise the remuneration of civil servants. It would limit expenditures because a salary readjustment would require increases for most retired civil servants because of the parity required by the Constitution.

The benefits, on the other hand, would not have the same impact, because they are not received by the inactive.

Edison Guilherme Haubert, president of Mosap (National Movement of Retired Servants and Pensioners), says that the measure would be a way for the government to put a grenade in the pockets of retirees.

The statement is a reference to a speech by Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) about the freezing of civil servants’ salaries.

“The benefits that they intend to readjust do not serve us at all. We do not have food aid, transport aid, none of that. Increasing this does not mean serving retirees and pensioners”, he says.

Haubert says that the measure would mean leaving retired servers without readjusting for inflation for another year, while the government privileges categories that it interprets to be aligned, like police officers, with Bolsonaro’s base.

“What we really need is replacement. We are in favor of the police having it, but within the isonomic principle. If you grant it to one category, you have to grant the same to the others”, he says.

For Haubert, the Executive benefits from the lower capacity of retirees to mobilize. “He [governo] wants to benefit the assets, which are reacting with more visibility. For retirees, it is more difficult to mobilize because unfortunately they rarely use the strength they have,” he says.

Lawyer Átila Abella, a specialist in Social Security, says that the rules on the rights of inactive people vary, but that salary readjustments equal to those of active workers are the right of all retirees who entered the public service until 1998.

“In general, integrality and parity is possible for federal, state and municipal civil servants who entered the public service until December 16, 1998, as defined by Constitutional Amendment 41, 2003”, he says.

The president of Fonacate (Permanent National Forum for Typical State Careers), Rudinei Marques, says that the categories do not even consider accepting a proposal such as the readjustment of benefits instead of salaries.

“We have to recover the inflationary losses, at least in part, which already exceed 28%. In addition, more than half of the servers are retired, who do not receive these benefits”, he says.

David Lobão, general coordinator of Sinasefe (a union of education workers, member of the forum that represents grassroots entities, Fonasefe), says that there is still no opinion formed on the proposal being studied by the government.

Fábio Faiad, president of Sinal (a union of Central Bank employees), rejects the government’s idea.

“The benefits are very small and can be withdrawn at any time by decree of the president. Our need is for salaries and we think that, even giving a benefit or an increase in food assistance to one or the other, the readjustment of the police is guaranteed,” he says.

“It makes no sense for the police to have readjustments and other careers that deliver, with productivity, efficiency and excellence like the BC, do not have readjustments”, says Faiad.

The servers of the monetary authority decided to maintain a new strike, scheduled for next Wednesday (9), from 8 am to 12 pm, in mobilization for salary readjustments and career restructuring.

Signal’s expectation is that 65% of the servers will join. In the previous strike, on January 18, workers stopped for two hours.

Amid the discussions, the unions support the forecast of a probable indication of a strike from March 9th.

According to the leaders, the weeks from February 14th to 25th will be for internal union mobilization activities.

The government currently has a budget of R$ 1.7 billion set aside in the 2022 Budget to give readjustments to civil servants.

The amount is insufficient to contemplate a reasonable linear increase to civil servants, and there is no fiscal space to further increase personnel expenses.

Therefore, technicians began to discuss the feasibility of using the money to readjust benefits — a measure with a wide reach and reduced cost compared to the impact of readjustments.

The Executive currently pays a monthly meal allowance of R$458 to all active civil servants, except for those who are on leave for long-term training or assignment to international organizations.

The pre-school allowance, paid to active employees with children up to six years old, has a value of up to R$321 per month.

The values ​​had the last adjustment in 2016 and are well below what is paid by the other Powers.

In the Chamber, civil servants receive BRL 982.29 in meal allowances and BRL 798.42 in pre-school allowances, according to data from December 2021. In the Judiciary, the amounts are BRL 910.08 and BRL 719 .62, respectively.