Minister defends veto of salary increase for the Judiciary.

Marcelo Brandão, reporter for Agência Brasil - The Minister of Planning, Nelson Barbosa, reinforced President Dilma Rousseff's opinion and indicated that the average readjustment of 59,49% for Judiciary employees should be vetoed at the Planalto Palace. "The readjustment [approved in the Senate] is not compatible with the fiscal readjustment. This should be a reason for the veto. The president spoke about this during the trip," said Barbosa in an interview today (13), in Brasília.

During a trip to Italy last weekend, Dilma commented on the impracticality of granting such a raise. "We are evaluating it, because it's impossible for Brazil to sustain a raise of that magnitude. There are certain... certain values, certain amounts of resources that some laws require, that are impractical. The country cannot cope with that."

According to the Ministry of Planning, increasing the number of active and retired judicial employees to 117,5 would cost R$ 1,5 billion this year, R$ 5,3 billion in 2016, and R$ 8,4 billion in 2017, reaching R$ 10,5 billion annually from 2018 onwards.

The president is addressing the Judiciary's salary adjustment while negotiating with Executive branch employees. "We are in negotiations with the Executive branch. We are working, following a schedule to present the Executive branch's salary adjustment to Congress by the end of August," said Barbosa.

The government's proposal is for a 21,3% increase, divided into four installments until 2019. Workers are requesting a 27,3% adjustment for next year to compensate for wage losses since 2010. They are also asking that the adjustment be negotiated annually.