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Agência Brasil – The Minister of Labor and Employment, Luiz Marinho, said that the minimum wage, currently worth R$ 1,302, should be increased later this year. The last readjustment of the national floor came into effect on January 1st. “We are discussing the search for fiscal space to change the value of the minimum wage later this year. If there is fiscal space, we will have to announce a change to May 1”, said the minister in an interview with the program Brazil on agendawhich aired this Sunday (12), on TV Brazil.
In addition to the new readjustment, the resumption of the Minimum Wage Appreciation Policy is also one of the portfolio’s priorities. According to the minister, the policy showed good results in the previous administrations of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, when Marinho was Minister of Labor, between 2005 and 2007.
“We were able to show that it was possible to control inflation, create jobs and increase income, increase the salary mass of workers throughout Brazil, driven by the Minimum Wage Valorization Policy, which consisted of, in addition to inflation, guaranteeing the real growth of the economy to provide sustainability, to provide predictability, to provide credibility above all for all agents. It is important that economic agents, the business community, mayors, governors, know the predictability of the wage base in Brazil, and the minimum wage is the main wage base in Brazil”, he explained.
“See, if this policy had not been interrupted after the coup against President Dilma and the dark government of Temer and Bolsonaro, the minimum wage today would be worth R$1,396. Check it out: from R$1,302 to R$1,396 is what the minimum wage would be worth today. Therefore, it was a policy that worked very well”, highlighted Marinho.
“Employment in vein”
During the interview, the Minister of Labor spoke of the portfolio’s expectations for this new administration and highlighted the repair of labor relations as one of the priorities. “We went through a government that worked on a process of dismantling labor relations. So the collective contract, labor negotiations, all of that was fiercely attacked, labor legislation, labor protection, all of that was attacked. We need to face this dilemma, review what was damaged in this process of labor relations, so that we can once again resume the negotiation process, to value the value of work itself, the wage bill, job generation and income. Our expectation is to work on this process”, he said.
Still on the expectations of the new management, Marinho highlighted the resumption of public works as an impetus for economic growth and job opportunities. “We have around 14,000 works stopped in Brazil, this creates a new expectation, the expectation of generating jobs. Work is a job in vein”, he highlighted. “These works are resumed practically simultaneously in Brazil, I am sure this will have a great impact on the resumption of economic growth”, he added.
New ways of working
Brazil is experiencing accelerated changes in the labor market caused by technological advances. In the interview, the Minister of Labor also spoke about these new service modalities, such as work through applications. “It is certainly a trend that comes with a lot of strength. It needs to be introduced in collective negotiations, otherwise we could have a lot of unprotected people in the labor market”, he said.
“And there is in this [cenário] the story of app workers, which many people think is just a pizza delivery guy, or that it’s just an Uber (NYSE:) driver, of the various platforms for transporting people, but it’s not, it’s present in health, education , in intermediation even of domestic work. Therefore, we need to fully understand this new moment”, explained Luiz Marinho.
Still on the subject, the minister addressed the precariousness of the labor market observed in recent years. “It took place on a gigantic scale and is exactly where we are at. [nos] referring. It is a maturation that we will have to go through. My concern is with workers, men and women, they are the ones we want to protect, because companies are exploiting this workforce too much”, concluded the minister. “What is not possible is lack of protection. Today there are thousands and millions of workers, all over the world, not just in Brazil, working with absolutely no social protection”, he added.