A bill approved this Tuesday (6) by the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) exempts retirees who are hired for formal jobs from paying FGTS and INSS. The text now goes to the House plenary for analysis.
Bill 3,679 of 2023 allows for exemption from the Severance Pay Guarantee Fund (FGTS) and social security contributions for retired employees who are hired as long as companies increase the number of employees. In addition, it limits the benefit to 5% of the total number of employees, considering the payroll of the year prior to hiring.
“The objective of this bill is to establish rules to encourage the hiring of retired elderly people, through incentives for private companies to carry out such hiring, by removing the obligation to collect FGTS and social security contributions from these people,” explained the bill’s rapporteur, Senator Margareth Buzetti (PSD-MT).
The government has positioned itself against the project. The government leader in the Senate, Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), argued that the main concern is unemployment among younger people, in addition to emphasizing that the project has an impact on Social Security.
“I know that the person is already retired and will not be entitled to a new retirement. But, to the extent that he or she takes the place of someone who is not retired, it would obviously be less of a contribution and more of a problem for Social Security,” said the government leader, recalling that the unemployment rate for young people aged 18 to 24 is 16.8%, while that of the elderly population is around 3%, according to the IBGE.
Senator Wagner also asked that the Committee wait for the Federal Revenue calculation to know the impact of the project on Social Security, but the request was not accepted by the president of the CAE, Senator Varderlan Cardoso (PSD-GO).
Senator Jaime Bagattoli (PL-RO) argued that young people do not want to work anymore and that, in some regions of the country, there is no available labor.
“There is no more labor in the North. I have a large company in a city, everything is within the rules, employees have a better quality of life, and we can’t find more employees,” said the parliamentarian.
The bill was approved by symbolic vote, when parliamentarians do not need to identify themselves during the vote. However, Senator Jaques Wagner and Senator Fernando Farias (MDB-AL) voted against, as they had requested that the vote be postponed until the IRS disclosed the impact of the bill on Social Security.
