As columnist Beatriz Rey wrote this week, Congress returned from recess with a long list of bills crucial to the government’s economic agenda — from its proposal to create a new fiscal framework to a reform of the tax code. But lawmakers may retrieve another reform proposal from the back burner, much to the government’s chagrin — an overhaul of Brazil’s civil service.
Brazil spends 13 percent of its GDP on the salaries and pensions of civil servants at all levels of government: federal, state, and municipal. On average, federal public employees earn twice as much as private workers — money that few Brazilians believe is well spent.
In 2020, far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro introduced a proposal to reform Brazil’s civil service by ending the ironclad job security enjoyed by public sector employees and tying job posts to regular performance evaluations, something polls show 88 percent of Brazilians support. While a special House committee approved the proposal in 2021, it has since lain dormant.
Last week, House Speaker Arthur Lira identified civil service reform as the next austerity move by Congress — which has already passed several pro-market proposals this year. However, this would run completely counter to the views of Luiz Inácio Lula...
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