Senate bargains to approve PEC that benefits judges – 10/06/2023 – Market

The approval of the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) for the five-year period, which grants additional remuneration to judges, prosecutors and defenders, became a bargaining instrument in the Senate in exchange for progress in the project that combats excessive salaries in the public service.

The proposal that seeks to limit the frills used to circumvent the salary ceiling, currently at R$ 41,650.92, has the support of the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), which is the target of an increasing demand for administrative reform to review expenditure on civil servants.

However, the project is stalled in the Senate and so far has not been discussed by the President of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). The text has been awaiting the appointment of a rapporteur since August 2021.

According to interlocutors, Pacheco has signaled in conversations with parliamentarians and members of the Executive that, to advance the super salaries project, it is “fundamental” to also promote a “career appreciation” in the Judiciary, the Public Ministry and the Defender’s Office.

The five-year PEC would be the tool for this appreciation. The text revives a benefit that was extinguished in 2006 and provides for the granting of an additional 5% of salary for every five years of service. The amount would be free from the salary cap and would be granted to those who are already in their careers and to those who are already retired.

The Lula government is against its approval, as the measure could have a cascading effect on other careers and also on states and municipalities.

Furthermore, it is precisely the Judiciary that is currently one of those that most rely on tricks to boost salaries. The approval of the PEC would end up nullifying much of the expected effect of combating super salaries in public administration.

The PEC was discussed in the Senate plenary at the end of 2022, but the vote was postponed due to a lack of consensus and doubts regarding its financial impact. Today, it is archived, but it can be processed again upon request from a senator.

According to Pacheco’s interlocutors, the reasoning is that, by resolving the problem of super salaries, the Judiciary will have space available in its Budget, which could be used to promote career restructuring.

At the end of last year, Pacheco also held the Presidency of the House and defended the combination of the measure with the super salaries project. “More than a commitment from this Presidency to the Judiciary in relation to a matter of career restructuring, this is a commitment to Brazilian Justice,” he said on November 30, 2022.

According to him, the career requires “very exclusive dedication”, and the recreation of the five-year period “avoids distortion” by allowing higher remuneration for those at the end of their career.

“We definitely cannot allow this career to be degraded, to be belittled, to be unattractive to those who are studying law at school, as I have done in the past”, stated the president of the Senate at the time.

“We have to have this perception, and abolish the easy discourse that this is simply a privilege, because we have only been cutting privileges over the last few years in relation to magistrates, but we are failing to recognize what is their right” , he added.

Throughout this year, the Lula government has tried to dialogue with Pacheco about the possibility of putting forward the proposal that combats super wages, but without triggering the resumption of the five-year PEC.

According to reports collected by Sheet, Minister Esther Dweck (Management and Innovation) discussed the topic with Pacheco in a meeting held to originally talk about the PEC that incorporates employees from former federal territories into the Union’s staff, in mid-September. The position of the president of the Senate, however, remained the same, as did that of the government.

The Executive’s hope now is that, with the sending of the other bills that make up the Lula government’s administrative reform, a mobilization will be created that will pressure the Senate to advance the agenda within this agenda. Management technicians have been holding weekly meetings to discuss the proposals, and their submission is expected by the end of the year or beginning of 2024.

The government is still mapping the possible impacts of the proposals on public accounts. However, preliminary numbers give an idea of ​​how the PEC can nullify the effects of the project against super wages.

A study released by the CLP (Public Leadership Center) states that regulating the salary cap for civil servants could generate savings of R$3.9 billion per year. The figure considers employees from the Union, states and municipalities who receive funds above the limit.

In the federal government alone, the savings would be R$0.9 billion per year. The government estimates that much of this is concentrated in the Judiciary, the Legislature and the MP, as the so-called “ceiling reduction” is already applied more rigorously in the Executive.

The five-year PEC could generate an additional cost of R$4.5 billion for the Union, states and municipalities, according to calculations made by government technicians last year. An eventual extension of the benefit to all careers would increase annual spending to R$10 billion in the three spheres.

The government is refining these numbers and plans to carry out a more detailed mapping, by Powers and careers.

To this end, Management has support from the SPE (Secretariat of Economic Policy), linked to the Ministry of Finance. The collaboration was one of the fruits of Esther Dweck’s meeting with ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance) and Simone Tebet (Planning and Budget), held on September 5th.

After the meeting, held amid pressure from President Arthur Lira (PP-AL) for administrative reform, Haddad defended the approval of the proposal that limits super salaries.

“I will cite an example: the super salaries law, a law that has already been voted on in the Chamber, is in the Senate and can regulate an important thing of putting an end to certain privileges and meaning a robust economy for the Brazilian State”, he said.

The government will create an interministerial working group to finalize the administrative reform proposal, which includes not only this project, but also other changes to the quota law and the format of competitions. The PEC of administrative reform sent by the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government is rejected by the current administration.