1.5 Million Brazilian Public Servants Will Not Receive 13th Month Salary

12/20/2017 - 09h49

Approximately one-and-a-half million public servants from five States will not receive their 13th month salary on Wednesday (20). Some will have to take out loans in order to have the money during this end-of-year period.

The situation is affecting Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe.

The largest group of public servants without payment is in Minas Gerais, amounting to 600,000 people. According to the Secretary of Planning, they will receive more information about the postponement of their 13th month salary on Thursday (21).

In Rio de Janeiro, where the monthly payroll is of roughly R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 490 million), the majority of the 456,500 public servants do not know when they will receive their 13th month pay.

This Wednesday, after exactly one year of delay, Rio's Finance State Secretary will pay 2016's 13th month salary to about 250,000 public servants.

Rio Grande do Sul, another State currently facing the issue, only managed to pay November's salaries on December 13. To prevent issues with the 320,000 public servants in the Executive Branch, employees had the option of taking out payday loans - at a rate of 1.42% per month.

According to the Finance Secretary, those who do not choose this option will receive the 13th month pay in 12 installments.

The loan option was also adopted in Sergipe.

Rio Grande do Norte only managed to settle October's payment on December 13. Governor Robinson Faria (PSD) met with public servants on Monday (18) to discuss their November salary.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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