Government can change birthday withdrawal and unlock balance for laid-off workers

FGTS

The birthday withdrawal allows the worker to withdraw from the fund always in the month of his birthday

Brasilia DF) – The Minister of Labor, Luiz Marinho, is expected to submit to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva next week a bill that changes the rules of the Service Time Guarantee Fund (FGTS), which could have an impact of up to R$14 billion in the economy.

The text, which is already in the Civil House, releases the FGTS balance to workers dismissed without just cause who have joined the birthday withdrawal and, therefore, were prevented from accessing the resources in the event of dismissal. The information was published by the newspaper O Globo and confirmed by Estadão.

“The project is simply to correct a distortion, an injustice against the worker, who joined the birthday withdrawal”, stated the minister in a video sent to Estadão. “Next week, we will submit it to President Lula for consideration, after a conversation with the ministers directly responsible”, said Marinho, highlighting that the National Congress “will know how to make the appropriate decision”.

Created by law in 2019, under the Jair Bolsonaro administration, the birthday withdrawal allows workers to withdraw from the fund always in the month of their birthday. On the other hand, in the event of dismissal, he is prevented from accessing the amount accumulated in the FGTS account linked to that job.

According to the rules, the worker can only return to the withdrawal-termination modality (which allows redemption in case of unfair dismissal) after 24 months.

Marinho and his team are critical of the modality and believe that the FGTS was created precisely to help workers in the event of dismissal and that, therefore, the purpose was distorted. Technicians from the Ministry of Labor also understand that the rule, by allowing annual withdrawals, violates another objective of the FGTS, which is to create savings to finance investments in infrastructure.

The end of the anniversary looting was a promise made by the minister as soon as he took office, but the issue is thorny due to the volume of adhesions. At the beginning of the year, according to FGTS figures, 28 million workers were in the modality. Furthermore, many beneficiaries took out bank loans with this money as collateral.

The Bill even mentions this audience. It determines that laid-off workers who took out financing with this guarantee must, obligatorily, pay off their debts with the redeemed amount. “Let’s imagine a citizen who has a balance of R$30,000 (in the FGTS) and who took out a loan of R$10,000. He pays off what he owes to the bank and will have the right to withdraw what is left in the fund.”explains the minister.

Estadão found that the ministry is evaluating the possibility of preventing this laid-off worker from returning to the birthday withdrawal after withdrawing the remaining FGTS balance. This way, it would once again be linked only to withdrawal-termination – avoiding periodic withdrawals from the fund.

*With information from IstoÉ

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