“President Jair Bolsonaro has not yet signed the bill resulting from Provisional Measure 936/2020. This bill authorizes the government to extend the duration of contract suspensions and working hours and salary reductions, which are currently limited to 60 and 90 days, respectively. The bill was approved by Congress on June 16 and sent for presidential approval last Wednesday (the 24th). The deadline for approval runs until July 14.
The special secretary of Social Security and Labor, Bruno Bianco Leal, stated that the president will sign the bill into law in the coming days. After the signing, the president will be able to issue a decree extending the terms of the Provisional Measure (MP). It will allow the extension of the contract suspension for another two months and the reduction of working hours and salary for an additional month.
“Both will be extended as soon as this bill is signed into law by the President of the Republic,” Bianco stated in a press conference on Monday (29). The secretary stated that the signing has not yet taken place because the Senate, the final house of Congress to review the bill, first sent a final version of the approved text on the 16th and then had to correct the wording, sending a new version only seven days later.”
“Currently, only the work permit, voter ID, and CPF are free.| Photo: Ana Volpe/Agência Senado
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President Jair Bolsonaro has not yet signed the bill originating from Provisional Measure 936/2020. This bill authorizes the government to extend the duration of contract suspension and working hours and salary reduction, currently restricted to 60 and 90 days, respectively. The bill was approved by Congress on June 16 and sent for presidential sanction last Wednesday (the 24th). The maximum deadline for sanctioning is July 14.
The special secretary of Social Security and Labor, Bruno Bianco Leal, stated that the president will sign the bill into law in the coming days. After the signing, the president will be able to issue a decree extending the terms of the Provisional Measure (MP). It will allow the extension of the contract suspension for another two months and the reduction of working hours and salary for an additional month.
“Both will be extended as soon as this bill is signed into law by the President of the Republic,” Bianco stated at a press conference on Monday (29). The secretary stated that the signing has not yet taken place because the Senate, the final house of Congress to review the bill, first sent a final version of the approved text on the 16th, and then had to correct the wording, sending a new version only seven days later.
“It is still within the [veto/sanction] deadline. However, there was a bureaucratic issue because the Senate sent us a text technically called an autograph [the final version of the text approved by Congress] and that text was altered. So we received a new autograph [on June 24], and then, obviously, when you have a new text, all [government] bodies have to issue an opinion [again regarding the sanction and vetoes of the approved text],” Bianco explained.
The Senate had to send a new version of the approved text for sanction because, in the first version sent, it kept an article that had been rejected by the Chamber's plenary. This article dealt with the correction of labor debts. The article was included by the deputies and the senators decided to reject it because it was an article “unrelated to the subject matter.”.
Even with the Senate's mistake and delay, the bill has been awaiting President Bolsonaro's sanction for a week. Bianco did not commit to a date, limiting himself to saying that “soon the matter will be resolved” and that the Ministry of Economy has already sent its opinion on the text to the Planalto.
Deadline of the first suspended and reduced contracts comes to an end
Meanwhile, the first agreements for contract suspension and reduction of working hours and wages are coming to an end and cannot be extended. Provisional Measure 936, which allowed the adoption of these mechanisms for up to 90 days, has been in effect since early April. As a result, the first agreements ended between late June and this early July.
This is the case, for example, of employers who directly opted for the reduction of working hours and salary as early as the beginning of April. They will have to resume paying their employees' salaries in full starting in July, because the maximum 90-day period has ended.
Employers who suspended their employees' contracts at the beginning of April are also in the same situation. The suspension already expired at the end of May and, even though they adopted the reduction of their employees' hours and wages for an additional 30 days, this deadline also came to an end in June or now at the beginning of July.
Rate of program sign-ups slows down while awaiting extension
According to the latest balance sheet released by the Ministry of Economy, 11.7 million workers have already had their employment contracts suspended or their working hours and wages reduced. They are part of 1.3 million companies that joined Provisional Measure 936.
The pace of settlements, however, has been slowing over time. In the first week of April, for example, when the provisional measure took effect, there were 2 million settlements. In the second week, there were another 1.5 million. As of May 5, there had been a total of 7.6 million settlements, 65% of the total.
Throughout the entire month of June, however, there were only 1.5 million new contracts signed.
The emergency benefit tally shows that, so far, 12 million workers have had their jobs preserved, according to the government's phrasing, by having been included in contract suspension or salary reduction programs.
”When it announced the program, the government projected that it would reach a total of 24.5 million workers covered by the Consolidated Labor Laws (CLT), accounting for nearly 70% of all formally registered private-sector employees, including formally registered domestic workers.”
SOURCE:
Gazeta do Povo
