FGTS: Marinho wants support to end birthday withdrawal – 02/13/2023 – Market

Minister Luiz Marinho, of Labor and Employment, asked this Monday (13) for the support of Fiesp (Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo) to approve, at the Board of Trustees of the FGTS (Fund for the Guarantee of Severance the end of the anniversary-looting modality, which he classified as a bait.

“We are against the withdrawal for ‘n’ reasons because I have the same vision. Not me, the Department [Sindical]that it was instituted with a specific purpose, in case the work has the need in its dismissal, and if it keeps withdrawing for several reasons, it loses its raison d’être”, said the director of Fiesp’s Union Department, Paulo Henry Schoueri.

The FGTS anniversary withdrawal has been attacked by Marinho since the first days of the new holder of the Labor and Employment portfolio in office. In this modality of accessing the fund’s money, the worker can withdraw a percentage of what he has in the fund plus an additional portion (the amount varies according to the balance).

Adhesion is voluntary, but those who request access no longer have the right to the traditional modality, the one released upon termination.

“That I will solve. I think that the anniversary withdrawal is a decoy, because it disturbs the industry’s logic, it weakens the investment fund”, he said. “I want to leave it to you, as the debate goes on, we will certainly guide [o assunto] on the Board of Trustees of the Fundo de Garantia this matter, and I want to count on the support of the industry there.”

The Minister of Labor and Employment told industry representatives in São Paulo that he daily receives emails from workers asking for the measure to be revised. The Guarantee Fund, according to him, has two important roles, today distorted. “One is to set up a fund for investment, housing, sanitation, and it has the role of helping work in the misfortune of unemployment.”

Marinho cited the example of a worker who used the birthday withdrawal to ask for a bank loan of R$ 14,000, for which she would pay R$ 22,000, with interest. “She was fired, has BRL 40,000 in her fund and, in theory, has BRL 18,000, but she was prevented from withdrawing because of the birthday withdrawal”, she said.

Still on the FGTS, Marinho said that he will seek all the ministers of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) to deal with the process that will decide the correction of the FGTS money.

The minister declined to say, however, what is the government’s understanding of the best solution for the case.

The STF will decide whether the TR (Referential Rate) is adequate to correct FGTS balances. In addition to the TR, which is close to zero, the money deposited in the fund is corrected by 3%. The action presented by Solidariedade in 2014 asks for its replacement by an index that compensates for inflation.

“I hope that the Supreme Court has responsibility when deciding on actions such as the FGTS”, he said. “I intend to talk to each Supreme Minister about this, about the risks of making a fund so important for economic activities vulnerable.”

The impact of the change to the fund is estimated at more than R$300 billion.