Professors and employees of administrative sectors of higher education throughout the state of São Paulo may go on strike on September 5th if institutions do not present a proposal to recover the salary gap and adequate working conditions in the face of the expansion of remote learning. The decision on the strike was approved at meetings held on the 17th. The base date for negotiating the salary readjustment for the category is March 1st.
According to the Federation of Teachers of the State of São Paulo (Fepesp), the negotiations began in March, but the representatives of the sponsors do not recognize the lag caused by inflation in wages, refuse readjustment by inflation rates and do not want to discuss the changes in conditions of work with the extensive application of remote teaching. “They created an impasse by not seriously negotiating and putting off discussions indefinitely. Now you have 20 days before the strike to really negotiate”, says the federation.
“We want to warn society that teachers are organizing to stop across the state. It’s advance notice. The maintainers have this period to negotiate seriously. We gave a deadline for students, families not to be harmed, without being able to plan. The teacher is a conscious category, he paralyzes the classes, but he doesn’t do it all of a sudden. We want to negotiate, and the sponsors have 20 days, until the 5th, to get out of the impasse”, said the coordinator of the Fepesp trade union negotiation commission, Celso Napolitano.
According to Fepesp, all the conditions for the outbreak of the strike are being observed by the unions. The assemblies were convened with wide publicity and had notices published in widely circulated newspapers. The workers were informed by the unions’ media, the minutes of the meetings were made official and their decisions will be timely informed to the Regional Labor Court.
In a note, the Union of Entities Maintaining Higher Education Establishments in the State of São Paulo (Semesp) said that it intends to maintain the salary negotiation that has been carried out since March with teachers and school administration assistants, who, in an assembly last week, , refused the new proposal presented by the entity. “The declaration of a strike by teachers and school administration assistants does not contribute to reaching an agreement. There was no intransigence from Semesp at the negotiating table”, said the executive director of the entity, Rodrigo Capelato.
According to Capelato, the negotiations were not interrupted and, from the beginning, there were advances in the meetings with the representative federations of the professional categories, with the presentation of several proposals for salary readjustments by Semesp, in addition to the orientation for the associated higher education institutions to maintain the concession of the clauses of the collective agreements while the negotiations lasted.
The note also says that Semesp has considered in the negotiations the difficulties faced by teachers and assistants in the face of a scenario of high inflation, but that it has also sought to demonstrate that Brazil is facing a serious economic crisis, with severe impacts on the financial sustainability of private higher education. “The drop in new entrants, the impossibility of passing on inflation to tuition fees and the increase in discounts offered have created a very challenging scenario for HEIs”, says Capelato.
Also according to Semesp, the proposal presented by the entity to recompose the salary of school administration assistants and represented teachers, reaches 10.57% in the lowest salary range. For teachers, the proposal presented by Semesp provides, later this month, for a special allowance of 45% of the current gross salary and, in September, a 7% readjustment on the February 2022 salary, in addition to maintaining the current clauses of the Collective Agreement. of current work.
For school administration assistants, recognizing the need for a policy to recover the minimum wage, but considering the financial infeasibility of private higher education institutions at the present time, Semesp’s proposal provides for a staggered readjustment model with a special allowance of 45% of the gross salary in force for everyone, regardless of salary range, still this month, and readjustment on the salary of February 2022.
“Semesp has done its best to reach a common ground that satisfies and meets the reality of both sides. Faced with the impasse of the negotiations and the rejection by Fepesp of all our proposals, Semesp recommended to the HEIs [instituições de ensino superior] the salary advance of up to 5%, from the August payroll, with payment in September, while the negotiations are not concluded”, added Capelato.
