FGTS review: government calls for extinction of action – 04/19/2023 – Market

The AGU (Attorney General of the Union) asked the STF (Federal Supreme Court), this Wednesday (19), for the extinction of the action that discusses whether the revision of the values ​​of the FGTS (Guarantee Fund for Time of Service) is due. .

The process is foreseen in the agenda of judgments of this Thursday (20) of the Court. Expected for about nine years, the action must define whether the current correction of the Fundo de Garantia —of 3% per year plus TR (Referential Rate)— is constitutional.

The case reached the Supreme Court in 2014, after a study commissioned by the Solidarity party and by Força Sindical pointed out considerable losses to the worker. At the time, the survey showed that the correction of values ​​brought a loss of 88.3% to the money deposited in the FGTS from 1999 to 2013.

In a memorial sent to the ministers, the AGU maintained that laws 13,446/2017 and 13,932/2019 have already changed the remuneration of accounts, as the FGTS began to distribute a portion of its profits to shareholders.

“With that, the remuneration of the accounts started to be influenced, not only by the monetary correction (based on the TR), but also by the capitalization of interest of 3% per year and by the distribution of the positive results obtained”, said the agency.

For the AGU, the change completely removes the plaintiff’s central argument that the correction would not keep up with inflation, to the financial detriment of workers.

“Although it is not strictly a matter of repealing or modifying the specifically contested provisions, the aforementioned legislative amendment reaches the core of the object”, he declared.

The body stated that, therefore, it is no longer possible to state that the remuneration of the account holder is that indicated in the initial petition of the action.

The AGU also argues that the FGTS is not a mere asset belonging to the worker, since it also consists of a financing instrument for projects of social interest in the areas of housing, basic sanitation, infrastructure and health.

The body cites that, in housing alone, hiring carried out with FGTS resources benefited more than 355 thousand families in 2021 and generated or maintained around 1.1 million jobs.

“The balance of the fund depends on the payment of FGTS balances to workers at the same Referential Rate, under penalty of making the aforementioned social programs unfeasible”, he says. Finally, the AGU warns that the eventual merits of the action would imply a reduction in the generation of jobs and in the number of people served by FGTS investments.