INSS considers strike over, but employees resist – 10/02/2024 – Market

The INSS (National Social Security Institute) public servants’ strike is coming to an end. The institute considers that, with the closing of yet another agreement with an entity representing employees, the movement is officially closed, but some social security technicians resist returning to work.

The majority are linked to Fenasps (National Federation of Workers’ Unions in Health, Labor, Welfare and Social Assistance), which did not sign the agreement to end the strike.

The strike began on July 10th. The first document ending the movement was signed on August 28th with the CNTSS (National Confederation of Social Security Workers). On the 26th, Condsef (Confederation of Workers in the Federal Public Service) was the second institution to endorse the Document and sign an amendment. Fenasps, however, did not accept the terms.

The institute says it considers that the movement has come to an end even with the non-acceptance of the negotiations by Fenasps and SINSSP, the union of social security technicians in São Paulo, as there is a court decision confirming the initial negotiations with the CNTSS. Furthermore, with two entities accepting the terms, there is a majority, as there are currently three confederations of the agency’s employees.

According to Ismênio Bezerra, director of governance, planning and innovation at INSS, the government and the category are now moving into a new phase, which is the creation of a debate table on career changes.
In this round, which had the first meeting held on Tuesday (1st), Fenasps did not participate.

“They are left out of career negotiations. As the CNTSS and Condsef signed the strike agreement, there is no way for you to dialogue with those who did not sign the agreement. We respect Fenasps’ movement to the contrary, but we already have an agreement strike that is recognized by the Judiciary”, he states.

According to the director, on Tuesday, the country’s 1,500 agencies operated normally. The institute has around 15 thousand technicians and, also on Tuesday, around one hundred strike absences were recorded.

The strike code was a demand from the employees who had stopped after being replaced by the note of unjustified absence, which could bring sanctions to the public employee. Fenasps went to court and obtained an injunction guaranteeing this type of point recording.

“Fenasps, which is the national entity that represents more than 90% of employees, did not sign the agreement because it basically does not cover almost any of the category’s demands, and the strike continues”, says Thaize Chagas, director of Fenasps (National Federation Unions of Workers in Health, Labor, Social Security and Assistance) and the National Strike Command.

SINSSP, linked to Condsef, confirms that it was the only union from this base that, in an assembly, rejected the government’s proposal and decided to maintain the movement.

The strike agreement guarantees employees readjustments in 2025, 2026 and 2027, in addition to career restructuring, which will increase from 17 to 20 levels. According to Bezerra, the category will be one of those that will see the biggest accumulated increase at the end of the three years.

INSS employees, as well as all civil servants, had a 9% increase in 2023, shortly after the start of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) government, after spending around five years without a salary increase.

The INSS has almost 19 thousand employees across the country, but reached 25 thousand in 2015. There are 15 thousand technicians responsible for almost all of the agency’s services and 4,000 analysts.

One million benefit requests arrive for analysis monthly, according to the unions that represent the category. Lack of staff is one of the reasons for the strike.