Government wants rule for decent work in public contracts and concessions – 04/29/2023 – Market

In May, the government wants to issue a decree to institute decent work in public contracts and concessions, with joint responsibility for irregularities committed by outsourced companies. The objective is to avoid the precariousness of labor at the end and situations such as work analogous to slavery.

On another front, the superintendencies of the Ministry of Labor will start to map the harvests in the states and mediate new ways of formalizing rural workers.

The measures are part of a package that should be announced on Monday, May 1st, Labor Day, he told Sheet Minister Luiz Marinho (Labour). He must participate in the party held by the trade union centrals in the Anhangabaú valley, in the center of São Paulo. The presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was not confirmed until the publication of this text.

Among the actions, there are proposals already announced, such as the publication of a provisional measure to increase the minimum wage to R$ 1,320, and a bill with the new policy for readjusting the minimum wage, which will be calculated based on the inflation of the year. plus the consolidated GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of two years before.

As anticipated by Sheet, Marinho also confirmed the increase in the Income Tax exemption range for those earning up to R$ 2,640 as of May. The table correction should have an impact of R$ 3.2 billion on federal accounts this year. The waiver of revenue next year will be around R$ 6 billion.

The decree that will deal with decent work in public contracts and concessions, according to the minister, seeks to establish the so-called joint liability in outsourcing.

“The main company subcontracts an outsourced company and such. It is responsible for working conditions, weekly and daily hours, fair remuneration for work, to avoid degradation of work in the outsourcing process”, he says.

The intention is for this care to be replicated in other instances, such as state governments and city halls, so that the care taken in hiring outsourced workers is reproduced by other entities. “We want to influence society as a whole, that is, that all employers work with this concept to avoid slave labor at the end”, he defended.

Marinho, a critic of the outsourcing law enacted in 2017, claims that the norm established a “general liberal” that ended up stimulating, due to the precariousness of work relations, the adoption of practices similar to slavery.

According to him, the government also intends to ratify some ILO (International Labor Organization) conventions, such as 187, which deals with health and safety at work; the 29th, on forced and obligatory labor; and 129, regarding rural workers, covering decisions, legislation and collective agreements in the field.

“We are working on contracts with harvesters, now coffee growers. The idea is to guide all states, in the superintendencies, to map the harvests and anticipate a negotiation process. It is the same logic of the Decent Work Decree, which, by agreement, you encourages employers to motivate formal hiring.”

The minister cites arguments from critics of social programs to justify the ministry’s action. “One of the records that people always make is ‘ah, because Bolsa Família interferes with the formalization of season workers, because the citizen will be hired to work 60 days, 90 days, and if he is receiving the benefit, he leaves [do programa, ao aceitar o trabalho] and then you can’t come back,” he said.

According to him, the government has been working on these cases and seeks to adjust the program’s provisional measure in Congress to prevent workers who work in crops from losing their right to benefit. “He can, depending on the criteria of family income in the year, even eventually suspend, if he reaches, finally exceeds, but he does not leave the Single Registry”, he added.

“At the end of the harvest, he would receive the benefit again. It is first to encourage formalization, because formalization has social security payments, protects the worker, encourages him not to escape the formal contract due to the eventuality of the family benefit.”

Coffee growers would be the first group to benefit from this ministry’s action. The idea is to extend it to other crops, such as cotton, tobacco, apples and winemakers.

Measures for the 1st of May

• Decree to institute decent work in public contracts and concessions, to establish joint and several liability
• Ratification of ILO Convention 187, which deals with health and safety at work
• Ratification of ILO convention 29 on forced and compulsory labor
• Ratification of ILO Convention 129, with norms for rural workers, which covers decisions, legislation and collective agreements in the countryside
• Actions to encourage formal hiring of rural workers
• Raise the minimum wage to R$1,320
• Expansion of the Income Tax exemption range to R$ 2,640
• New minimum wage valuation policy