Marinho: appreciation of the minimum will soon be sent to Congress

The Minister of Labor and Employment, Luiz Marinho, said that he will send the proposal to the Legislature by May that establishes the new minimum wage at R$1,320. According to him, the government will also forward the new policy of permanent appreciation of the minimum wage. According to the minister, the parameters of this policy are being studied by the government in a group that counts on the participation of the trade union centrals. The expectation is that the proposal will be presented to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva when he returns from his trip to China. The statements were made this Wednesday (12) at the Labor Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. According to Marinho, the minimum wage policy of the first Lula and Dilma Rousseff governments had a positive impact on income distribution, without raising inflation, unemployment and informality. “We are studying how long we are going to propose, if it is for 20 years, if for 30, for 15 years, and evidently with each new PPA [Plano Plurianual] a review of the efficiency of the established policy could be carried out”, said the minister. Working hours The minister defended the broadening of the debate on the reduction of working hours, taking into account the evolution of society and the improvement of people’s quality of life. “Chile has just reduced the weekly workload to 40 hours throughout the country. Perhaps there is also a lighthouse for us to discuss working hours in Brazil”, said the minister. “I know that the employer world does not always like to talk about reducing working hours, but we need to have the necessary sensitivity to adjust working hours, in view of the needs of society and the need to improve the quality of life and face the radical transformations that happen in the labor market and in the evolution of society”, he added. Labor legislation The minister informed that a tripartite group formed by representatives of companies, employees and the government is being formed for eventual revisions of points of the labor legislation and union structures. “The Outsourcing Law today is the twin sister of slave labor. It created the possibility that anything is possible and anything goes”, he argued, arguing that, in the current format, outsourcing represents “perversity, deregulation and incentive to informal work”. FGTS Marinho criticized the creation of the FGTS anniversary withdrawal, implemented by the previous government, in order to allow each person to carry out an annual withdrawal from their accounts. In the minister’s assessment, this withdrawal weakens the fund itself “to respond to one of its missions, which is the financing of housing and sanitation”. In addition, this withdrawal “created the possibility of the financial system’s spree with the guarantee fund”. “Today, of the R$ 504 billion deposited in the checking account of the guarantee fund account holders, we already have almost R$ 100 billion disposed of by banks in payroll loans, based on the birthday withdrawal format”, he argued. *With information from the Chamber Agency

Agência Brasil