Government tries to negotiate adjustment above 19% for education employees

Fearing the teachers’ strike, scheduled for April 15th, the federal government announced this Thursday (11) that it intends to present a new salary adjustment proposal for federal education employees within two weeks. The Minister of Management and Innovation, Esther Dweck, informed that the adjustment must be above the 19% accumulated increase, throughout the current administration (2023-2026), which the category had already rejected.

Since the beginning of this year, the government has been trying to reach an agreement with the category and with federal employees on salary adjustments, but has been unable to reach a consensus. In February, Minister Dweck said that the adjustment of public employee salaries in 2024 will only happen if there is “excess” government revenue. Entities that represent Union employees charge a salary adjustment of 34.32%, divided into three installments, in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The government proposed a 9% adjustment to the category divided into two installments of 4.5%, in 2025 and 2026, in addition to 9% in 2024. However, the proposal was rejected by the civil servants, and since then, negotiations have been suspended .

Salary increase, career restructuring and precarious working conditions are the reasons that lead university professors to go on yet another strike, scheduled for April 15th. Behind the scenes, some of the teachers, supporters of the Lula government, were against the strike to avoid further damage to the president’s image. Technicians at universities and federal institutes have been on strike since March 11th.

With the announcement of the strike, the government is trying to speed up a new agreement at least for education employees, above which they did not agree. The topic will be discussed at a meeting this Thursday afternoon, with representatives of the National Association of Directors of Federal Higher Education Institutions (Andifes) Andifes, President Lula, Minister Dweck and the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana.

“We are discussing internally in the government a budgetary space not only for education, but for other employees so that we can have a value above this [de 19%]. We hope it won’t take that long, in a week or two, to make the counter-proposal”, said Dweck in an interview with EBC, this Thursday morning.

This Wednesday (10), the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, denied “any possibility of adjustment” this year by stating that the “Budget is closed”.