The Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Senate approved this Wednesday, 10th, by symbolic vote, the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution 14/2021, which deals with rules for the hiring and retirement of the careers of Community Health Agents (ACS) and Agents to Combat Endemic Diseases (ACE). The text now goes to the plenary, under a special regime.
The rapporteur, Irajá (PSD-TO), made no changes to the text approved by the Chamber in October. The National Confederation of Municipalities calculates an impact of R$69 billion on city hall systems. The Ministry of Social Security calculates an impact of R$98.7 billion over the entire future period until the impact on the last beneficiary is exhausted.
The calculation is based on data from the Ministry of Health on the number of 400 thousand agents, considering parameters of the RGPS floor and ceiling values and a distribution of 50% for each sex. Additional payments for men would be R$51.3 billion and for women, R$47.4 billion. At the other extreme, considering the current value of the RGPS benefit ceiling of R$8,157.41, the overall amount would reach R$530 billion.
The Proposal provides for a special retirement, as long as health and endemic disease control agents prove “acting for 25 years exclusively in the effective exercise of their functions” and reach a minimum age, following a transition rule:
- 50 years of age for women and 52 years of age for men, until December 31, 2030;
- 52 years of age for women and 54 years of age for men, until December 31, 2035;
- 54 years of age for women and 56 years of age for men by December 31, 2040;
- 57 years of age for women and 60 years of age for men, from January 1, 2041.
Another possibility provided for by the PEC is retirement by age, for women who turn 60 and men aged 63 with at least 15 years of contributions and 10 years of activity.
The PEC prohibits the temporary or outsourced hiring of the agents in question, except in cases of public health emergencies. According to the proposal, outsourced employees who participated in the public selection process “will automatically be transformed into public employees” upon publication of the text. Public managers will have until December 31, 2028 to implement these rules.
Durigan and Alcolumbre dealt with bomb scores
The vote at the CCJ comes one day after the Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, spoke with the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), about the “bomb agendas” being processed in the House. Among them is the PEC for health agents.
After the meeting, Alcolumbre criticized the number of projects that set salary floors for different categories and defended an assessment of the fiscal impact of the measures. “We have here, which have already been processed in the Chamber of Deputies and which are being processed in the Federal Senate, 30 projects, including a constitutional amendment proposal and a bill, related to minimum wages and remuneration”, he said, after Senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES) asked for a vote on the national minimum wage for street cleaners.
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“In an election year, this is very complex, because whatever I put up for voting, everyone will vote yes because of the election, and they will have to find ten Brazilians to pay. And then I’ll be the one to blame for not wanting to give a floor to the doctor. (…) Can Brazil support this? Will Brazil resist? Will public finances resist?”, he asked.
At the meeting, the Treasury expressed concern about the impact of several proposals being processed in the Senate, including:
- Project that deals with the renegotiation of rural producers’ debts;
- PEC of full retirement for health agents;
- Salary floor for doctors and dental surgeons;
- PEC that increases the share of Union resources allocated to the Municipal Participation Fund.
