Law requires employers to inform the race of employees – 04/24/2023 – Market

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) sanctioned a law that amends the Statute of Racial Equality to include the obligation of employers to include a field for ethnic-racial identification in documents and labor records.

The same legislation also provides that the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) carry out a survey every five years to identify the percentage of occupation by ethnic and racial segments in the public sector. The objective is to obtain subsidies for the elaboration of public policies.

The sanction of the project was published in this Monday’s (24th) edition of the Official Gazette.

The law determines that all administrative records that will be directed to public administration bodies and entities, private employers and workers must contain fields intended to identify the ethnic and racial segment to which the worker belongs. The self-classification criterion will be adopted.

The text presents a list of documents that must follow this new standard, although it points out that these will not be the only ones to be covered by the new law.

They must then present this field for the identification of ethnic and racial segments, employment admission and dismissal forms, work accident forms, registration instruments for the Sine (National Employment System), Rais (Annual List of Social Information) and documents, including the made available electronically, for the enrollment of insured persons and dependents in the general Social Security system.

Regarding the IBGE survey, its objective is to obtain subsidies for the implementation of the National Policy for the Promotion of Racial Equality

The text of the new legislation does not establish a grace period and the rule will come into effect from this Monday (24th), with its publication in the Official Gazette.

Pronampe term is extended from four to six years

Lula also sanctioned a law that makes the deadlines for contracting and paying credit operations more flexible under Pronampe (National Support Program for Micro and Small Businesses). The text extends the period from four to six years.

The provisional measure with the new rules for Pronampe had been issued by former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) three days before the second round of elections, in October last year.

The credit line linked to the basic interest rate (Selic) was created in May 2020 to help entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic. The program, however, was reissued with other conditions and the Selic, which was at 2.9% per year, reached 13.75% per year this year.

In the first edition, the program established a maximum annual interest rate equal to the Selic plus 1.25% on the amount granted. In the second edition, for operations contracted from January 2021, the annual interest rate jumped to Selic plus 6%.