High wages and ‘benefits’: why Bolsonaro’s administrative reform is more lenient than Paulo Guedes wanted

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After almost a year of the initial forecast, the government of Jair Bolsonaro began its administrative reform proposal that aims to change the hiring rules and the career progression of future public officials, a movement that responds to pressure from the minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, but that has a milder impact than what he intended, since it does not affect those who have already joined the public function.

In addition, the first phase of the reform does not yet foresee changes in compensation – the intention is that a proposal will be sent later that reduces starting salaries and extends the time needed to achieve increases.

This Thursday (09/03) the first phase was presented with a proposal to reform the Constitution that provides for the end of the automatic progression of career by seniority, allows the hiring of candidates for a temporary contract and facilitates dismissal (end stability) for officials who are not in the typical state careers.

The definition of exactly which careers fall into this category will be done later, in a bill, if the proposed reform of the Constitution advances in Congress. But, according to the Special Undersecretary of Bureaucratization, Management and Digital Government of the Ministry of Economy, Gleisson Rubin, the careers that must have stability are those that need to be protected from pressure and whose service is long-term.

“Is the role played a role that permeates governments, that is maintained over the years? And furthermore, is the work you do exposed to pressure to do something that is blatantly contrary to the public interest? If this activity meets these two characteristics, then, yes, it is necessary to maintain the stability of this professional ”, he explained.

The proposal excludes ‘members’ of other powers and military

In this first phase, the government also proposes ending some benefits, which critics consider benefits, such as the possibility of taking more than 30 days of vacation a year and mandatory retirement as a form of punishment.

These changes, however, should not affect some careers of the elite of public servants, such as judges, prosecutors and prosecutors, who in addition to having benefits such as the right to 60 days of vacation per year, are also among those who receive the highest salaries for public servants. .

According to Gleisson Rubin, the government’s administrative reform proposal includes officials from the three powers (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) at the municipal, state and federal levels, but does not reach members of the Legislative and Judicial Powers (parliamentarians, judges and members of the Public Ministry). ). In the government reading, the Constitution does not allow the initiative to change the career structure of the other branches of government.

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“An eventual inclusion of them depends on whether each Branch makes a proposal or that our proposal is expanded, but that decision is up to Congress,” he said.

However, there is a lot of resistance within the Judiciary to reduce benefits such as 60 vacation days. Last week, the president of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and the Federal Supreme Court, Minister Dias Toffoli, came to determine that federal and labor judges have the right to sell a third of the two months of vacations, generating more spending for the courts. regional.

The Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, defended the longer vacations of the members of the Public Ministry in a note released last year, when the administrative reform began to be debated.

“These are political agents who, in addition to parliamentarians and heads of the Executive, cannot be subjected to pre-established working hours. (…) Reduce the holidays of prosecutors and prosecutors to 30 days, equating them to the server The general public would be to ignore the important powers granted by the Constitution, “he argued.

Criticized Category Exclusion

For the economist Nelson Marconi, professor of the Public Administration and Government courses at the FGV-SP, it really would not make sense to include parliamentarians in administrative reform, since they are elective political positions, with a fixed duration (eight years for senators and four years for federal deputies). and state and municipal councilors).

In the case of the Judiciary, Marconi recognizes that members of the Public Ministry and judges must have greater protection of stability to be able to investigate and judge independently. However, he considers it important that administrative reform reach the privileges of these careers, as well as changes in remuneration.

“It makes sense that some rules (of administrative reform) do not apply to them. Now what is the logic of having longer vacations? ”He asks.

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APR

Others left out of the administrative reform are the military, a group that has benefited from the government of Bolsonaro, a retired army captain. Last year, Congress approved a restructuring of the career of the Armed Forces with a salary increase, proposed by the president with compensation for pension reform.

The Ministry of Defense justifies the different treatment arguing that the career has different characteristics from the civil one. Members of the Armed Forces are not entitled, for example, to overtime pay, strikes and FGTS.

“It is also a category that needs to have greater stability, but the proposal already contemplates differences (for state careers and those that are not),” says Marconi.

“Why can’t the military undergo a performance evaluation, why can’t they meet their goals, why can’t the same salary (progression) rules that the reform creates for other careers apply? The government’s political choice “, also critical.

House proposes to cut wages and the government leaves for later

The proposal to change the salaries of civil servants was left for the second phase of the reform, a point defended by the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and by the mayor, Rodrigo Maia.

Both consider that public servants – with an emphasis on exclusive state careers such as tax management, Justice, diplomacy – are already beginning to earn high by Brazilian standards and are rapidly advancing towards the salary ceiling of each category. In this sense, they want a reform that reduces starting salaries, makes career progression more gradual, and links progression to performance evaluations.

According to Secretary Gleisson Rubin, the government’s suggestion to reduce starting salaries will be forwarded through a bill as Congress advances the proposed reform of the Constitution presented this Thursday.

Rodrigo Maia, however, presented on Wednesday (09/02) a specific administrative reform proposal for the employees of the Chamber of Deputies, already anticipating a reduction of up to 40% in the starting salaries of the candidates.

If your suggestion is approved by the deputies, the initial remuneration of legislative advisers in the Chamber would drop from 32,844.88 to R $ 21,977.10, while that of analysts would drop from R $ 24,716.88 to R $ 13,849.10 .

The proposal also provides that the Chamber employee will only be able to reach the highest salary range of his career in at least 25 years, with new evaluation criteria. Today, this is possible in ten years.

The Senate has yet to present its proposal.

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Federal server at the top

According to the Atlas of the Brazilian State, published by Ipea (Applied Economic Research Institute), on average the salaries of federal employees (R $ 9,186) are higher than those of state (R $ 5,040) and municipal (R $ 2,865) . .

In the Executive Branch, some of the careers that stand out for the high remuneration paid to newly hired candidates are those of a delegate of the Federal Police (R $ 23,692.74), fiscal inspector of the Federal Revenue Service (R $ 21,029.09), union lawyer (R $ 21,014.49), diplomat (R $ 19,199.06) and analyst of the Central Bank of Planning and Budget (R $ 19,197.06). These are values ​​that place these servers among the richest Brazilians, from the moment they enter their careers.

According to Oxfam Brazil, part of an international confederation that works to reduce inequalities, workers with a monthly salary of R $ 15,000 are already among the 2% with the highest income in the country, when considering people over 18 years of age . that they have some source of funds. A remuneration of R $ 23 thousand places the individual among the richest 1%.

The salaries paid to the executive elite are not only well above the country’s per capita income (R $ 1,439, according to IBGE), but they also far exceed those of people with higher education. According to the Annual Report on Social Information (Rais) of the Ministry of Economy, the average remuneration of professionals with a doctorate in Brazil, whether in the public or private sector, was R $ 12,141 in December 2018.

But there are even higher starting salaries in the judiciary and legislature. The lowest remuneration offered today to federal judges in Brazil, for example, is R $ 32,000, a level above the salary paid to new magistrates in rich countries.

A 2018 study by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (Cepej, in the French acronym) shows that the average starting salary paid to judges in 48 countries (mostly European) was 50,529 euros per year (approximately R $ 236,000) in 2016.

That year, the Brazilian federal judge earned at least R $ 27,500 per month, in addition to housing assistance of R $ 4,377. Considering the thirteenth salary and the additional equivalent to two months of vacation to which the category is entitled, the annual income of a federal magistrate was at least R $ 428 thousand.

After sending the initial government proposal, Rodrigo Maia demanded on Wednesday that the Judiciary be included in the reform. “The Judiciary also needs an administrative reform for its new servants. We are in 2020, and the rules are from 1988,” he said, after meeting with the State Finance Secretaries in Recife.

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