BRAZIL
Outgoing Brazilian President, Michel Temer says his successor, President Elect, Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) should address the impact of high salaries in the Federal Public Service.
Mr Temer’s aides recommended changing the Government’s wage structure to make it similar to that of the private sector and also suggested postponing salary increases slated for 2019 to 2020.
The measures are meant to curb increases in Government wages in the next few years.
According to the calculations of Mr Temer aides, a wage increase in the Government payroll would cost BRL4.7 billion (A$1.7 billion) in the next year alone.
The report sent to Mr Bolsonaro’s team said “the payroll’s high cost is caused by high wages, not by an excessive number of employees”.
Meanwhile, Cuba has announced it is pulling thousands of doctors out of Brazil, after what it called “contemptuous and threatening” remarks by Mr Bolsonaro.
The far-right leader, who takes office on 1 January, had questioned the doctors’ qualifications.
He also accused Cuba’s Communist Government of keeping 75 per cent of the doctors’ pay and refusing to let their families join them.
The pull-out is likely to cause chaos in Brazil’s public health system.
Healthcare is Cuba’s most lucrative export.
Its More Doctors aid program operates in 67 countries and earns the island US$11 billion (A$15 billion) a year.
About 8,000 Cuban doctors have been working in Brazil’s poorest and remotest areas under the scheme.
Cuba said they will all be summoned home by the end of December.
Brasilia, 18 November 2018
