Last Friday (17/11) the National Health Confederation (CNSaúde) sent a new proposal for the payment of the nursing minimum wage in the private sector to the Superior Labor Court (TST). If approved, the model will be presented to workers by the court, mediator in the negotiations.
The content of the new proposal is still confidential. “The TST wants to debate with workers first, before the whole of society has access”, he explained to the JOTA Clóvis Queiroz, General Coordinator of Labor and Union Relations at the entity.
CNSaúde suggested on 7/11 the payment of 24 to 36 months of nurses’ fees in installments. The model was rejected by the court. According to the confederation, the TST questioned the possibility of a reformulation to provide “more social benefits to nursing”.
Understand
The request came from CNSaúde for the TST to unlock negotiations related to the payment of new salaries for the category in the private sector.
In a ruling published on August 25, the STF defined that, in 60 days, employers and employees in the private sector must carry out collective bargaining to implement the minimum salary for the private sector. If there is no agreement, the legal value of the nursing floor prevails – R$4,750 for nursing professionals; R$3,325 for nursing technicians and R$2,375 for assistants and midwives.
In its request for assistance, CNSaúde, which represents private hospitals and clinics, justified that conciliation is necessary due to the difficulty of reaching an agreement with workers following the decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), published on August 25.
CNSaúde argues that there is a “coordinated national action” by organizations that represent workers to “procrastinate negotiations” on the nursing floor, with the aim of letting the 60-day deadline expire without negotiations being completed – thus maintaining the values before established by law.
“Both situations characterize tensions in the negotiating environment and the destruction of one of the volitional primacies of this process so dear not only to the Labor Court but also to the International Labor Organization (ILO), because the subliminal coercion of subduing one of the negotiators, in this case health employers, does not reflect the enlightened dimension attributed to collective bargaining”, complained the Confederation.
Workers justify the lack of agreements. According to them, the proposals presented suggest long deadlines for receiving the new amounts. The problem, they continue, has been faced since the beginning of the negotiations. Furthermore, each state has spoken out differently against non-payment. “We have unions that have opted for judicialization, others are going to strike and some want to go on strike. We still don’t have a national decision, let’s wait for what will be discussed at the meeting with the TST”, said Valdirlei Castagna, president of the National Confederation of Health Workers (NCTS).
Vilhena Soares – Reporter in Brasília. Covers the Health area. Graduated in journalism from the Catholic University of Brasília. Before JOTA, she was a reporter at the newspaper Correio Braziliense, writing about health, science and technology. Email: [email protected]
