Congress articulates to stop flexibilization of the apprentice law and government may have another defeat

After the publication of an MP (provisional measure) easing the young apprentice law, on Wednesday (4), deputies mobilized to completely block the changes proposed by the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) regarding the apprenticeship program.

The amendments presented by the rapporteur of the Special Committee on the Apprentice Statute, Deputy Marco Bertaiolli (PSD-SP), aim to exclude from the MP all articles related to the subject, in addition to making the proposal that has already been studied by parliamentarians prevail.

“The changes proposed in this provisional measure are very bad, they distort the role of learning in Brazil in a very serious way”, criticized Bertaiolli. “The only amendments I could come up with are suppressive,” she said.

According to the deputy, a request was also made to the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (Progressistas-AL), for the MP to be reported by one of the members of the Special Commission, who spent the last few months listening to agents of society involved in the issue. of learning.

Bertaiolli also said that the final report of the project, with authorship signed by all the leaders of the Chamber, including Lira, will be presented by the end of June. The MP needs the approval of Congress within four months not to expire.

For the parliamentarian, the edition of the MP was a disrespectful act towards Congress. “I do not think that a provisional measure is the most appropriate instrument for the Ministry of Labor to act, disregarding a Special Commission created for the same purpose in the Chamber of Deputies,” he said.

The Ministry of Labor and Welfare, in turn, highlighted that the MP, as well as the decree on the same topic, “are fundamental instruments for expanding opportunities for training and labor inclusion for thousands of young Brazilians, especially the most vulnerable , the social group that suffered the most from the effects of the pandemic on the job market”.

If the changes are overturned by Congress, it would mean a new defeat for the government in the labor area. In September last year, the Senate rejected the bill that would create new labor programs. The government tried to negotiate and even proposed a downsizing of the proposal, with the removal of parts that altered the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws), without success. However, it still plans to resume the debate and wants congressional leadership in mini-labor reform.

The Green and Yellow Card also enters the list of failed MPs, but that the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government wants to reissue. The launch of the proposal, which was part of the government program in 2018, but never got off the ground due to political resistance, remains on the radar of Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy). The modality would allow hiring workers paying fewer charges.

The dissatisfaction with the MP of the young apprentice law also led the labor inspectors to hand over, on Thursday (5), their positions of coordination of supervision of professional apprenticeship in the 27 units of the federation.

According to the auditors, the regulations create rules that benefit companies that do not respect the quota for professional learning and prohibit the performance of the labor tax audit against irregularities committed.

“Furthermore, the regulations suspend fines that have already been applied, creating a true pardon for violators of the law”, the coordinators state in a letter.

Leandro Carvalho, coordinator of professional learning in Alagoas, says that the collective decision was taken because the MP and the decree are “extremely destructive”.

“In addition to the plan for hiring apprentices being, in fact, a plan to slow down supervision, granting extended deadlines and forgiving old debts, it starts to rewrite the CLT, placing elements that make learning more precarious that will close vacancies”, he said.

According to the auditors, more than 100,000 apprentices were expected to be hired in the next four months, but that may not occur.

In a statement, the Ministry of Labor and Welfare said that “the measures create 100,000 new apprenticeships and encourage the hiring of 250,000 new apprentices by the end of the year, 50% more than all apprentices currently hired, through an action to regularize compliance with the learning quota by companies, which today, after 22 years of its institution, is less than half of the legally established minimum.”

Marcelo Gallo, superintendent of Administration, Finance and Technology at CIEE (Center for Company-School Integration), sees the MP as a setback in the matter of learning and says that it is not possible to enumerate a single positive point.

According to him, the feeling among the members of Febraeda (Brazilian Federation of Socio-educational Associations of Adolescents) is of “scorched earth”. “Our suggestion to deputies and senators is that they reject the subject of learning in its entirety,” he said.

The Apprentice Law determines that medium and large companies must reserve 5% to 15% of vacancies for teenagers and young people aged 14 to 24 in their workforce.

The MP establishes, among other changes, that companies that hire vulnerable young people will be able to double the quota and that hired apprentices will continue to be counted in the quota for 12 months, which would generate an artificial calculation.

“The apprentice by his nature is vulnerable, he is a young person who works from the age of 14 to receive the minimum wage/hour. How does the government talk about increasing vacancies? By using this criterion, you are reducing the quota by half”, said Gallo. .

The regulation also says that apprentices can be up to 29 years old in areas where the performance of activities is prohibited for those under 21, in the case, for example, of transporting valuables, in the private security segment.

“You are using the apprentice to make a job precarious. It is a total misrepresentation of the purpose of the law of apprenticeship,” said the CIEE superintendent.