Nursing Floor: Municipalities in Piauí Propose Using Oil Royalties to Fund New Payment

The New Salary Floor for Nursing Professionals Is Generating Debates in the Piauí Region. Some Municipalities Proposed Using Oil Royalties to Fund the New Payment Amounts.

Municipalities in Piauí are seeking to use oil royalties to finance the new salary floor for nursing in Brazil, which includes nurses, technicians, and aides. With over 2.8 million professionals in the country, the initiative aims to ensure payment not only to civil servants but also to outsourced and precariously contracted workers. Although approved a year ago, the payment of the salary floor remains a complex and uncertain issue in the region.

Oil Royalties Can Fund Nursing Salary Floor Payment in Piauí

In the pursuit of securing the payment of the new salary floor approved by Congress, municipalities in Piauí are exploring an innovative alternative: directing funds from oil royalties to guarantee salaries at the new pay level.

Currently in Brazil, an army of over 2.8 million nursing professionals works daily, consisting of 693.4 thousand nurses, 450 thousand nursing aides, 1.66 million nursing technicians, and about 60 thousand midwives.

The president of the Piauí Association of Municipalities (APPM), Toninho de Caridade, suggests that this financial approach would not only encompass nurses and civil service health professionals but also include outsourced workers and those with precarious contract ties.

In this way, the payment of the salary floor already approved by Congress would become a reality in the lives of these professionals.

This remains a widely debated issue in the healthcare sector, as although the new salary floor for nurses completed a year since its approval last Friday, the effective payment has not yet materialized.

As established by law, nurses hired under the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) should receive a minimum salary of R$ 4,750.

Nursing technicians, in turn, should receive at least 70% of this amount (R$ 3,325), while nursing aides and midwives would receive 50% (R$ 2,375).

This salary floor applies to both the public and private sectors. The Ministry of Health aims to implement the national nursing salary floor in the payroll by this August.

Thus, directing oil royalties in Piauí toward the payment amounts could be a viable alternative.

Payment of the New Salary Floor for Nursing Professionals Still Faces Obstacles

In June of this year, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) upheld the constitutionality of the salary floor but imposed some restrictions regarding its application.

One of these restrictions includes the requirement for collective bargaining within 60 days for professionals hired under the CLT regime.

This decision has generated controversy, as some professionals argue that World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labor Organization (ILO) standards recommend a 30-hour workweek, linking compensation to a workload of 44 hours per week.

Additionally, the National Congress has also expressed disagreement with the STF’s decision.

Speaking on the topic, Toninho de Caridade, president of APPM, shared some relevant points regarding the approach taken by municipalities in Piauí to acquire resources from oil royalties.

“I advocate for a thesis with the federal delegation from Piauí that the distribution of royalties should fully meet the nursing salary floor. This is important for all of us; it would not burden the union, as it is already existing funding,” reinforced the representative.

Now, municipalities in Piauí continue to fight for a concrete decision from the Federal Government regarding the payment of the new salary floor.