The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso suspended this Sunday (4th) the national salary floor for nursing and gave a period of 60 days for public and private entities in the health area to clarify the financial impact of the minimum salary, the risks for employability in the sector and possible reduction in the quality of services. The information was disclosed by the advisory of the STF.
The minister’s precautionary decision was granted under the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) 7222 and will be taken to a referendum in the virtual plenary of the STF in the coming days. At the end of the term and based on the information, the case will be re-evaluated by Barroso. The action was presented by the National Confederation of Health, Hospitals and Establishments and Services (CNSaúde), which questioned the constitutionality of the Law 14,434/2022which established the new salary floors.
Among other points, CNSaúde claimed that the law was unconstitutional because the rule that defines public servants’ remuneration is a private initiative of the Chief Executive, which did not happen, and that the rule disrespected the financial, administrative and budgetary self-organization of the entities subnationals
sanctioned exactly a month by President Jair Bolsonaro, the law establishes the national salary floor for nurses, nursing technicians, nursing assistants and midwives. In the case of the former, the expected floor is R$ 4,750. For technicians, the value corresponds to 70% of the floor, while assistants and midwives will be entitled to 50%.
The national floor applies to employees under the CLT regime and to civil servants from the three spheres (Union, states and municipalities), including municipalities and foundations. The text was approved by the National Congress in July, in response to a historic claim by the category, which represents around 2.6 million workers.
impacts
In the injunction granted this Sunday, Barroso stressed the importance of valuing nursing professionals, but highlighted that “it is necessary to pay attention, at this moment, to the possible negative impacts of the adoption of the contested salary floors”.
“This is a point that deserves clarification before considering the application of the law”, he added. Also according to the magistrate, there was an imbalance in the division of the costs of the salary adjustment, since transfers of public resources for health procedures continue with outdated rates.
“Basically, the argument that the Legislature approved the project and the Executive sanctioned it without taking care of the measures that would make its execution feasible, such as, for example, increasing the SUS reimbursement table to the partner network, seems plausible. In this case, they would have wanted to have the benefit bonus without the burden of increasing their own expenses, outsourcing the account.”
The 26 states and the Federal District, the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM) and the Ministry of Economy will be summoned to provide information within 60 days on the financial impact of the rule.
The Ministry of Labor and the National Confederation of Health Workers (CNTS) will have to provide detailed information about the risks of layoffs. Finally, the Ministry of Health, health councils and the Brazilian Federation of Hospitals (FBH) will need to clarify the alleged risk of closing beds and reducing the number of nurses and technicians.
