Brazil’s Civil Servants Push For $45.3 Billion In Pay Raises

Public sector unions in Brazil are demanding nearly 92 billion reais ($45.3 billion) worth of salary increases for all of the country’s civil servants, reported Reuters on Thursday, after claiming that the current government employee pay scale was not an accurate reflection of Brazil’s economic growth over the last decade.

From 2001 to 2010, the Brazilian economy had grown by an average of 4 percent each year, with government revenues tripling during the period.

Public sector unions in Brazil are demanding nearly 92 billion reais ($45.3 billion) worth of salary increases for all of the country’s civil servants, reported Reuters on Thursday, after claiming that the current government employee pay scale was not an accurate reflection of Brazil’s economic growth over the last decade.

From 2001 to 2010, the Brazilian economy had grown by an average of 4 percent each year, with government revenues tripling during the period.

Though the economy grew by just 2.7 percent in 2011, and is forecasted to grow by 1.5 percent this year, the unions insist that employees’ salaries had barely kept up with the rate of inflation, with only specialised civil servants receiving healthy wage hikes in the last ten years.

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“Many civil servants haven’t shared fully in Brazil’s recent economic growth,” told Vagner Freitas de Moraes, president of CUT, a big labour group that includes public sector unions, to Reuters.

[quote]”This is like planting a seed, but then not watering the plant,” de Moraes added.[/quote]

On Thursday, Bloomberg News reported that the country’s official statistics agency had to delay publishing annual economic data as a result of the nationwide federal strikes.

The strikes, which began in May, has also reportedly affected the nation’s ports and customs authorities, with over 350,000 government workers presently on strike.

Thousands of others, including tax inspectors, public utilities employees and workers in regulatory agencies, have also implemented a “go slow” protest at work, delaying government facilities in the process.

Nevertheless, the Brazilian government does not appear to be budging on its stance – citing the need for fiscal responsibility, and offering only modest salary increases.

If the demands were met, the government’s salary obligations would increase by nearly 1.5 times, said Brazil’s planning ministry, with the federal headcount having increased by more than half a million people during former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s term.

According to Reuters, Dilma Rousseff, the current Brazilian president, is also reluctant to meet with the unions’ demands given the uncertain global economic situation; while she sees unexpected increases in state spending as counter to her current priority: reviving Brazil’s economic growth.

[quote]”This (the strikes) is a direct challenge to her stated objective,” said Alberto Almeida, a political analyst at the Instituto Analise, a research firm in Sao Paulo. “It’s not likely she’ll be willing to cede much.”[/quote]

Nevetheless, Brazil’s finances still remain in far better shape than those of many developed countries, though many economists are now worried that Brazil could miss its 2012 surplus target.

Economists also believe that Rousseff may soften next year’s primary target of nearly 156 billion reais to allow for infrastructure investments needed to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

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