Planned since 1946 and postponed due to political resistance, the benefit was only regulated in 1986 and today serves 6.7 million people per year
Unemployment insurance completes 40 years of effective application in Brazil as a right that went through four decades of obstruction. Although provided for inthe benefit was only regulated in March 1986, via Decree-Law 2,284, under José Sarney’s government. Senate Archive records reveal that the project was systematically delayed due to political resistance and the argument that the aid would stimulate “vagrancy”.
The first real attempt to establish protection occurred in 1962, with João Goulart, but the 1964 coup interrupted the agenda. In 1966, the dictatorship created the to replace ten-year job stability. In practice, the fund transferred the burden of protection to the worker himself.
During the regime, the government used a “rhetorical juggling”: in growth, there was said to be full employment; in the recession, he claimed lack of resources.
Documents from the time show that conservative sectors feared that insurance would “excessive independence” to the workers. There was an interpretation that the benefit would cause “accommodation”since the worker would not feel motivated to look for a new job if they were paid without working.
Congressmen such as Franco Montoro, Itamar Franco and Jorge Uequed were critical voices who denounced the systematic postponement of the measure during the dictatorial period.
The implementation in 1986, within the Cruzado Plan, served as a “vaccine” against possible layoffs resulting from the economic package. Senator Jamil Haddad (PSB-RJ) highlighted, at the time, the concern about cuts in the banking network. Definitive consolidation only came with the 1988 Constitution, which created the (Worker Support Fund), fed by PIS and Pasep.
Brazil was a laggard in comparison to industrialized countries such as Great Britain (1911) and the USA (1935), and even neighbors such as Chile (1937) and Uruguay (1944). Today, unemployment insurance serves around 6.7 million Brazilians per year. In addition to supporting those dismissed without just cause, the benefit helps domestic employees, artisanal fishermen during the closed season and workers rescued from a regime similar to slavery.
The current system is seen as an automatic stabilizer of the economy: by preserving the consumption of unemployed families, the benefit keeps the industry, commerce and services sectors warm, preventing an even greater drop in GDP in periods of crisis.
With information from
