2023-04-27 18:51:14
© Reuters. Minister of the STF Luís Roberto Barroso 08/31/2018 REUTERS/Adriano Machado
By Ricardo Brito
BRASÍLIA (Reuters) – The majority of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) should follow the votes already given by the rapporteur, Luís Roberto Barroso, and by colleague André Mendonça in favor of guaranteeing a correction of the Severance Guarantee Fund (FGTS) for savings, with the consequent overthrow of the current use of the Referential Rate (TR), in a judgment that will be resumed this Thursday afternoon by the plenary, according to sources interviewed by Reuters.
One of the sources said that the court must even follow the line of Barroso’s vote. The other highlighted that this is the tendency of the plenary of the Supreme Court, but it is always possible to have new divergent theses for the correction of the background.
The process worries the government in view of the billionaire potential of the cause at the same time that it can generate gains for workers with a formal contract.
In his vote, presented last week, Barroso was in favor of a correction of the FGTS at least equal to the income of the savings account. He also defended that the effects of the decision occur from the publication of the minutes of the trial, that is, without retroactive effects. Mendonça accompanied him fully.
The trial was suspended at the time after two votes and the president of the STF, Rosa Weber, informed that it would resume on Thursday. There are eight ministers left to vote – there is a vacant seat on the Supreme Court with the retirement of Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.
The lawsuit filed in 2014 by the Solidarity party questions whether the current way of correcting the balance of the fund’s accounts is constitutional, in which the FGTS yields 3% plus the Referential Rate (today at 0.15%) per year.
The party alleges that this correction percentage does not even preserve current inflation and leads to the loss of the worker’s purchasing power.
In 2019, Barroso had given an injunction to suspend all actions that were running in judicial instances on the matter until a final decision by the Supreme Court.
In a memorial sent to STF ministers last week, the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) even defended the extinction of the action filed by Solidarity. The body that defends the government claims that, by laws of 2017 and 2019, the remuneration of FGTS accounts was changed, since the fund began to distribute a portion of its profits to shareholders.
(Edited by Alexandre Caverni)
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