More than 50 bills seek to regulate the minimum salary for health professions

Published on 09/04/2022 06:00

(Credit: Silvio Avila/AFP)

While nurses across the country await a Federal Supreme Court (STF) decision to see if they will receive the minimum salary for the category, other groups of professionals are maintaining intense mobilization in the corridors of the National Congress to ensure the same rights. There are currently 53 bills aimed at regulating wages and working hours for nine health professions. However, the entities warn that the actions could lead to new judicial tracks, as such achievements affect the budgets of both the public and private sectors.

Surveys by the National Health Confederation (CNSaúde) and the Brazilian Health Plans Association (APAME) indicate that bills are in place to establish minimum salary and working hours for health workers in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate that could have an impact. 36 billion Rls sector costs in the first year, and so on.

The account already covers the nursing home, spurring a series of national mobilizations on the subject. On August 10, CNSade and seven other entities, including the Brazilian Federation of Hospitals (FBH), requested the suspension of Law No. 14314/2022, which sets the minimum wage for nurses at R$4,750; 75% of this amount is for nursing technicians and 50% for nursing assistants and midwives.

The parties’ appearances in Unconstitutionality Direct Action (ADI) 7222 have been completed, at least in a preliminary manner, this week, and a decision is awaited by the parties involved. Currently, more than 10 class entities have demonstrated in defense of the floor. The main criticism is the fact that the law does not indicate a source for payment of resources, especially for hospitals that rely on the Unified Health System (SUS) and charitable hospitals, which also cover the expenses of donations.

An example of this situation is the judicial decisions obtained by Santas Casas de Misericórdia in Belo Horizonte (MG) and São José dos Campos (SP), according to which charitable hospitals have ensured sufficient resources to pay the minimum amount, of the blockade in the National Health Fund and, respectively, in State and municipal health fund accounts.

CNSade estimates that the new minimum salary would spark a wave of mobilization, as the budget impact would be impractical and unsustainable for reasons similar to the dispute with nurses.

After the bill benefiting nurses, the bill closest to becoming law is the one that establishes the minimum salary for physical and occupational therapists, approved by the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs (CAE), last Tuesday, in the House of Representatives, which will go to the House of Representatives. Representatives, if there is no appeal to vote in plenary.

Specify PL No. 1731/2021 Minimum wage for Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists at R$4,800, with 30 hours worked per week. Authored by Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), the bill received positive feedback from Rapporteur Senator Romario (PL-RJ). “In Brazil, there are about 350,000 qualified professionals who will benefit from this measure,” the parliamentarian confirmed when defending the matter during the CAE hearing.

Payroll

The issue is related to the entities in the sector. If approved, the projects will have impacts on the structure. The value of the scholarship for a medical resident replacing salary, for example, will go from R$3,330.43 to R$11,865.60, equivalent to the Mais Médicos Project scholarship for Brazil. With that, it would cause an impact of R$13 billion annually.

The problem really lies in the salary scale, whose movement involves the guarantee and quality of service provided to the population, says Eduardo Trindade, a doctor and former president of the Regional Council of Medicine in Rio Grande do Sul.

“The issue of minimum salaries for health professions is that they can make the system very expensive. In the case of the nursing floor, there has been an increase in the dismissal of both technicians, nursing assistants and nurses. Many institutions end up cutting back on their cadres of professionals because of the new values,” he assesses. Director.

It is also troubling that professional standardization does not follow other issues that are detrimental to the performance of professionals, and that these developments run into common problems. “Although there have been violations, including public tenders with degrading salaries, including for physicians, if approval of professional plans for other professions occurred, there could be job cuts and, therefore, it would be difficult for patients to reach these professionals.” , the account .

For this very reason, new legal battles are already expected if the new floors come into effect, remembering that although the government and the Unified Health System (SUS) are the largest sources of funding, they are not the only ones. “It is likely that there will be a greater eradication of this topic, in an attempt to stop the law that created the minimum and in the SUS bonus schedule that has been frozen (and in negligible values) for many years. In general, it is worth noting that the source of funding is not only the government” , referring to private clinics and health plans.