Legislation

Brazil – Nursing minimum wage suspended

By James - 12 September 2022

The Minister of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso suspended the law that established the minimum wage for newly approved national salary floor for nurses and nursing technicians.

Law 14.434/2022 was approved by Congress and sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro but the judge asked for health companies to provide more data on the impact of the new measures.

The STF was responding to a request made from the National Confederation of Health, Hospitals and Establishments and Services (CNSaúde), which questioned the constitutionality of the law. According to the Supreme Court judge, it was necessary to assess how the new measures would impact jobs as the private sector could face financial problems which in turn would lead to a fall in capacity.  

Gambling legislation is increasingly being singled out as a way to raise money to foot the bill.

While Gaming law passed in the chamber of deputies and is waiting for approval in the senate Chief Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, and other supporters of the government, have argued that that 4 percent of the collection of the “Cide-Jogos” tax will be used to finance programs and actions in the field of public health. The Contribution for Intervention in the Economic Domain (Cide-Jogos) will be a tax on the sale of games and bets based on the gross income resulting from the total premiums paid. Under new proposed this would be raised to as much as 12 percent for health.

According to local health officials Judge Barroso has already met with the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco and the President of the Chamber of Deputies Arthur Lira to discuss the issue. Both Pacheco and Lira have been pushing for gambling reform for some time and want the judge to reverse the suspension of the bill.  

In June Senator Pacheco said that gambling regulation could be used to pay for a newly imposed increase on the minimum wages for nurses. Meanwhile newly appointed rapporteur for Gambling Bill 442/91 in the senate Davi Alcolumbre also came out in support of the move saying that it was inevitable that gambling would fund projects such as this one and others like it in the future.