Brasília, September 26, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - On Thursday (25), the president of the Federal Labor Court (TST), Minister Francisco Fausto, commented the consequences for the country of the rise in unemployment. He based his position on data issued by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), registering an increase in the unemployment rate in the six Brazilian metropolitan areas, to 13%. According to the Minister, the government's inertia in developing consistent policies of social insertion can, in short order, lead to a situation of generalized chaos in the country.
"If the so-called 'growth spectacle' does not take place, Brazil will end up becoming an urban guerrilla battleground between those who have jobs and those who don't," the president of the TST affirmed. In his view, unemployment is a stage in the process of making employment itself more precarious, and the next stage, which the country is already witnessing in some regions, corresponds to the degrading condition of slave labor.
In face of the unemployment problem, Fausto expressed hope for the efforts the government is making in the international sphere. "I believe that the foreign policy the Brazilian government is implementing will result in investments, which will permit an effective war on unemployment and other sores, such as the blatant shrinkage in the salary mass of workers," he affirmed.
He did not spare the government, however, when he remarked that, if the effort made abroad to attract investors does not bring the desired results, it will have been a big waste of time. With respect to the directions of economic policy, the president of the TST voiced concern over the control of inflation, despite the fact that this effort requires the imposition of recessive measures and policies that cause firms to fail, curtail their growth, and dismiss workers.
Fausto also called for changes in the legislation, such as a reduction in the workday, in order to improve social conditions in the country and increase the level of employment. (DAS)
