President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said, this Wednesday (5/7), that the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, is guaranteed in office. He also stated that the Unified Health System (SUS) will pay back the national nursing floor since May of this year.
Lula spoke at the 17th National Health Conference, which takes place in Brasília and has as its motto the resumption of popular participation in the construction of public policies for the Unified Health System (SUS).
Before the event, Lula met at the Alvorada Palace with ministers such as Nísia Trindade, from Health, and Alexandre Padilha, from Institutional Relations. On the agenda was the nursing salary floor, which was approved in the last government, but was stuck by decisions of the STF and budget restrictions.
In recent weeks, the stalemate has provoked strikes across Brazil, including in the Federal District.
The strikes began to be demobilized after the STF ministers decided that the government should pay the readjustments provided for by law. The STF also decided that in the case of nurses from private institutions there must be negotiation and that the implementation of the national nursing floor must be paid if, after 60 days of collective union negotiation between employers and employees, there is no agreement.
“Nursing is not a minor job”, said Lula, at the event. “Who is going to clean people, who takes them to the bathroom, who gives injections is exactly the people downstairs, who work a lot. That’s why it has to be valued. Comrade Nísia made the decision: she will pay the floor, she will pay the arrears since May, and more the thirteenth”, completed Lula.
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Nisia guaranteed
At this time, the president also secured the minister in his position.
“Last week, I called Nísia,” said Lula. “I had read a note in the newspaper that there was someone claiming the Ministry of Health. I made a point of calling Nísia, because I was going to travel outside Brazil. I said ‘Nísia, go to sleep and wake up calm, because the Ministry of Health belongs to Lula, it was chosen by me and will stay as long as I want’”, she pointed out.
Lula took the opportunity to praise the head of the Health portfolio. “I’m sure that few times in our lives we had the chance to have a woman in the Ministry of Health, to take care of the people with her heart, like a mother takes care of her children. I was very lucky with my health ministers, but it took a woman to do more and better than we were able to do”, said the president.
