Senate CCJ approves special retirement for health agents

The Senate's CCJ (Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship) approved this Wednesday (10), in a symbolic way, a proposal that guarantees special retirement for health and disease control agents who are public servants. The text will now go to the plenary for analysis.

Pela PEC (Proposta de Emenda à Constituição) aprovada, a idade de aposentadoria será de 57 anos para mulheres e 60 anos para homens, para quem tiver 25 anos de contribuição e de atividade. The proposal, however, creates transition rules until 2041 for those who entered the activity until the future enactment of the change.

For active agents who have 25 years of contribution by 2030, special retirement will be guaranteed with a minimum age of 50 for women and 52 for men. Then, every five years, the minimum age will be increased by two years and, thus, from 2041 onwards, the minimum ages will be 57 for women and 60 for men.

Under the current rule, consolidated after the Social Security reform, the retirement age is 62 years for women and 65 years for men. According to the PEC, the different age is justified by the risks inherent to the functions performed by health agents.

In the discussion of the text at the CCJ, senators asked for a review (more time for analysis), which would have postponed the vote. However, after appeals from supporters of the text, the request was withdrawn and voting went ahead.

The original text was presented in the Chamber of Deputies, where the PEC was approved in October last year. At the Senate CCJ, the rapporteur, Senator Irajá (PSD-TO) was in favor and did not propose changes.

The approved proposal also establishes that outsourcing the hiring of community health agents and agents to combat endemic diseases will be prohibited, except in the event of public health emergencies.

Despite the approval by the CCJ, the president of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), has held back on putting forward proposals that have a high impact on public accounts, especially those dealing with minimum wages and special retirees. On Tuesday (9), he reinforced the need for fiscal responsibility in the plenary.

"I want to help the retirement of community health agents, endemic disease agents, they walk on the streets, in the sun and in the rain, putting their lives at risk. But will we be able to do it? Will there be a source of revenue? When we put this in the Constitution here, they will question whether there was a source of revenue, because in the law there must be a source", said Alcolumbre.

While being processed in the Chamber, the impact of the proposal in favor of health agents was estimated by the rapporteur, deputy Antonio Brito (PSD-BA), at R$5.5 billion by 2030. There were disagreements, however, regarding the real impact of the matter.

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Source: CNN