Minister of Labor says FGTS anniversary withdrawal is a “decoy”

In a meeting this Monday (13th) in the capital of São Paulo with businessmen from the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), the Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho, criticized the anniversary withdrawal of the Severance Indemnity Fund (FGTS) ). For him, the anniversary withdrawal is a “decoy”.

“I think the anniversary withdrawal is a hoax because it disrupts the industry’s logic, because it weakens the investment fund”, said the minister, calling on São Paulo industrialists to help the government in facing this issue.

“Surely we will guide this in the trust fund’s board of trustees and I want to count on the industry’s support”, he said.

According to Marinho, many workers have even used the FGTS birthday withdrawal as a form of financing and this has hindered the fulfillment of the roles the fund is really intended for: as an investment in housing and sanitation; and in help to the worker as unemployment insurance. “With this method [de saque-aniversário]he [trabalhador] ends up losing his job and not being able to withdraw the fund because he joined the birthday withdrawal”.

“I am being attacked a lot by the people of the so-called market, but here we are a market, aren’t we? The bank staff is very nervous because I have been making speeches about reviewing the anniversary withdrawal from the guarantee fund”, said Marinho.

Support

At the Fiesp meeting, the minister also asked for support from industrialists for the modernization of labor legislation and the approval of the tax reform.

On the issue of labor legislation, the minister said that the government does not intend to revoke it, but to update it.

“The word revoke is not appropriate. It is worth saying that we have to revisit what has already been done, observe the excesses that are there of precarious work relations and therefore make the necessary corrections in relation to this. To revoke would be to return everything to what it was. It doesn’t fit. But it is necessary to update the existing legislation in a modernization process, in particular, looking at the representativeness of the parties and provoking and valuing the role of the collective bargaining agreement”, said the minister.

According to Marinho, the ministry is going to create, soon, a working group to think about labor legislation and also the trade union issue.

“The legislation does not necessarily have to have a detail of things. If there is a good environment for representation, if business and workers’ entities are strengthened, they sit down at the table and resolve”. The expectation, said the minister, is that at the end of the first half of this year the changes in labor legislation will be delivered to Congress.

He also asked industrialists to support the approval of the tax reform. “The tax burden is heavy for production and consumption. But it is too light for the few existing millionaires in Brazil. Therefore, it is necessary that we face this debate and that you help to sensitize Congress in a necessary tax reform, in an inversion of this Income Tax table, which has sacrificed the low and medium wages”, said the minister.

The minister also requested support from Fiesp directors in the idea of ​​using funds from the Worker Support Fund (FAT) for technological updating or professional training.

“I haven’t discussed this in the government yet – but I want to do so – so that the FAT is destined to pay its constitutional obligations and is also dedicated to training young people from the point of view of professional training”, he explained.

“I believe that collective agreements should make it a worker’s right to have x hours a year to update their skills, qualifications or the possibility of moving up the career ladder”, said the minister.

“A dream that I share is that our youth, when they finish high school, have it full time and that when they leave high school, they are qualified for the job market. Then he can go to college or university. But he needs to leave there prepared for the job market, seeking to match the conditions to compete in the job market. What I see is that upper-class children enter this phase at an advantage because working-class children end up having to sacrifice their studies,” he said.

central bank

During the meeting, the minister also complained about the high interest rates in Brazil, saying that they really “disrupt” the country.

“The hand is too heavy and this could create serious problems for the economy. I think there is a movement here, in tune here, to work on this process of sensitizing the management of the members of the Central Bank (BC), in the autonomous way that they are”, said the minister, remembering the autonomy of the BC to define the interest rate in the country.

“He has the autonomy to ensure that the government does not have undue influence in the policy-making process. And not the other way around, ”he explained.

Minimum wage

After participating in the meeting with industrialists, the minister spoke briefly with the press and said that the government is considering raising the minimum wage for May. However, he did not talk about values.

“The minimum wage has two issues that I think are important. The first of these is the valuation policy. If it had not been interrupted after the coup against President Dilma [Rousseff], today it would be worth R$ 1,396.00. The main task of the government is to rebuild the resumption of appreciation [do salário mínimo] from 2024. But we are looking for fiscal space for this to be done in that year. If that happens, the change will take place from May”, said the minister.