Brazil’s Central Bank in “meltdown,” chairman says

Roberto Campos Neto, the chairman of Brazil's Central Bank. Photo: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom/ABr

Central Bank workers have called off a two-day strike scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, but the dispute between unions and the Brazilian government continues.

The workers are demanding a 36 percent pay increase and a restructuring of their career paths. After an initial offer of 13 percent, the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration proposed a 23 percent wage increase to quell union disgruntlement.

Workers saw the move as a sign of respect from the government, but 95 percent of them voted to continue their go-slow protest and draw up a counterproposal. Last week, workers staged a 48-hour strike. The protests have disrupted the publication of important economic indicators used by the markets.

Roberto Campos Neto, the Central Bank chairman, said last week that the bank is in “meltdown,” losing an average of seven employees a day — as more qualified workers are lured away by private banking.

As our Brazil Daily newsletter has shown, discontent among civil servants has spread to all levels of government. In 2020 and 2021, public sector strikes accounted for about a third of all strikes in Brazil. That jumped to about 60 percent of all work stoppages in the country in 2022 and the first half of 2023 (data for all of last year has not yet been released).

Three weeks ago, the coordination team of Prevfogo — a group of about 50 civil servants responsible for managing operations and hiring firefighters to combat blazes across Brazil — decided to suspend all external work.

By downing tools, Prevfogo employees will no longer be able to carry out a crucial phase of their work: organizing teams to clean up the forest, clearing areas in advance to prevent fires from spreading during the dry months.

Meanwhile, meat-processing plants are feeling the effects of a go-slow imposed by agricultural inspectors since January. The time it takes to issue the documents needed to transport meat has gone from 3.1 days to five. It may seem small, but this additional delay affects the entire meat chain and could affect prices.

And Brazil’s tax appeals court Carf has postponed 55 trials due to walkouts staged by tax auditors. About BRL 1.1 trillion (USD 234 billion) is at stake in these cases.