Work that pays off

What the program says

Brazilian workers are not afraid of work. What they want is for work to pay off, for a signed work card (carteira assinada) not to be a distant luxury, and for it to be worthwhile for companies to hire on the books instead of off the books. Today, the cost of a formal worker reaches about twice the wage they take home. That gap is what leads many companies not to hire, or to hire informally, and the informal worker is precisely the one left without a signed work card, without FGTS (the workers’ severance fund) and without unemployment insurance. We will gradually reduce the cost of labor, without taking away rights, so that more Brazilians have a signed work card and the protection that comes with it. This reduction will arrive in force at two ends that the Brazilian labor market insists on leaving out. At one end is the young person looking for a first job, who hears the same demand for experience from every company, without anyone giving them the first chance to gain it. At the other is the person over fifty who lost their job, has plenty of experience and still is not called in for interviews. For young people, we will create an employment contract for 18- to 24-year-olds seeking their first job, with lower payroll costs, so that companies have an incentive to give that first opportunity and young people gain the experience that today is both demanded of them and denied to them. For older people, we will create a more attractive contract for hiring people aged 50 or over who have been unemployed for at least 12 months: those who reach middle age with a lifetime of work cannot be treated as disposable. We will also give more freedom to those who work, with flexible working hours that fit the lives of mothers, young people and those who have more difficulty entering the job market. That is why we advocate the negotiated over the legislated, that is, allowing workers and companies to agree directly on the working conditions that work for both, within the law, instead of following a single rule imposed on everyone. When both parties negotiate with mutual gains in mind, job quality grows, companies grow and opportunities grow. Finally, no one finds a job if they do not know where it is. That is why we will modernize job placement, with a national job bank connected to companies’ HR departments, to bring those looking for work and those looking for workers together quickly and directly, in place of today’s slow and disconnected system. [p. 43, 44]

In plain language

• The text states that the cost of a worker with a signed work card reaches about twice the wage they take home, which leads many companies not to hire or to hire informally. The program proposes gradually reducing the cost of labor, without taking away rights.
• For young people aged 18 to 24 seeking their first job, it provides for an employment contract with lower payroll costs.
• For people aged 50 or over who have been unemployed for at least 12 months, it provides for a more attractive contract for companies to hire them.
• It proposes flexible working hours, citing mothers, young people and those who have more difficulty entering the job market. It advocates the negotiated over the legislated: workers and companies agree directly on working conditions, within the law.
• It provides for modernizing job placement with a national job bank connected to companies’ HR departments.

What is not in the program

• It does not say how large the reduction in labor costs would be, which payroll charges would be reduced, nor at what pace.
• It does not detail what the contracts for young people aged 18 to 24 and for people aged 50 or over would look like: which costs change and for how long they apply.
• It does not name the legal instrument (law, PEC [proposed constitutional amendment], decree) for the new contracts and for the negotiated over the legislated.
• It gives no timeline, cost or source of funds for the measures.
• It does not specify who would operate the national job bank.