Minister says fiscal adjustment should not remove labor rights
Joaquim Levy -
Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said Monday (May 4) that the fiscal adjustment should be implemented without removing labor rights. According to him, the government's proposal to tighten eligibility rules for unemployment insurance and for the benefit paid to fishermen during the fishing closed season (called seguro-defeso) “are not a loss of labor rights”.
“Making the required adjustments is absolutely crucial to resume a cycle of growth. These adjustments must be balanced across all sectors and we'll have to do it without removing any of the workers' rights,” Levy told journalists in a news conference following an event in São Paulo.
He admitted that the austerity measures will impact the corporate sector and “companies will have to adapt to a situation that may be less comfortable in the short run but, I'm confident, much more beneficial and sustainable in the medium term.”
The minister said he expects the fiscal adjustment to be approved by Congress later in the first semester, but the approval depends on a government effort to educate the Congress members. “Deferring [the approval] is not a good policy. And the fear of rushing the adjustment is not a wise motivation, especially considering the fiscal adjustment is just the first step in the economic adjustment that we'll have to make to respond to a changing global scenario and the end of the commodities super cycle,” he said.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Minister says fiscal adjustment should not remove labor rights
