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The social security that women want
Guacira Oliveira
The social protection system is in need of urgent changes. Despite the ongoing debate on social security reform, injustices persist. When it comes to women, and especially black women, domestic workers and rural dwellers, the discrimination they face is even greater, since they must work more to receive fewer benefits.
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Social
security reform is currently a central theme of political debate. In January
2007, President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva’s government created the National
Social Security Forum to discuss proposals for changes in the social security
system. The Forum is tripartite, composed of representatives of the government,
trade unions and private sector business associations, who only account for
50.6% of the economically active population. The sectors excluded from the
present social security system and women’s organizations are not represented.
The decision to exclude those segments from the discussion is indicative of the
refusal to seek alternatives which would make the system universal, as well as
to come to an agreement regarding specific inclusion strategies. Since the 19th
century, the social security system has only provided coverage for workers
within the formal labour market – that is, mainly white men from privileged
social sectors. The formal work model, and therefore the possibility of gaining
access to the benefits of social security, has historically been linked to a
‘white-skinned’ and masculine model. Decent and valuable work, which
generates rights for the worker, was and remains far from the reach of most
women and black people. This is even more true for black women, who are subject
to a double division of labour: racial and gender-based.
Parallel and Itinerant Social Security
Forum
In 2005, there were 44.2 million people contributing to the social security
system (35.3 million of whom were in possession of an official work card),
whereas a contingent of 32 million people, 70% of whom were women, were excluded
from the system. This led a group of women’s organizations
to create the Parallel and Itinerant
Social Security Forum, which will discuss alternatives to the social
security system, taking into account all of the Brazilians who have been
excluded from the Forum set up by the federal government. This initiative has
the support of Social Watch Brazil, the National Union of Federal Revenue
Auditors (UNAFISCO) and the Federation of Federal Revenue Auditors (FENAFISP).
From the point of view of the Parallel Forum, the main problem to be confronted
is the exclusion of the greater part of the population from effective social
security coverage. In 2004, over half of economically active women (50.5%) and
39.5% of economically active men (PNAD, 2004) were not covered by the social
security system. If their dependents were taken into account, the number of
Brazilians totally deprived of social security coverage would rise to a total of
approximately 100 million people (Melo and Considera, 2005). In our view, it is
this lack of social protection that justifies the reform of the social security
system which, as a matter of principle, should be public, solidarity-based and
universal.
However, in the view of the business community, a significant part of the
federal government and the mainstream media, all of whom carry great weight in
the moulding of public opinion, the key issue is not this widespread lack of
protection, but rather the search for solutions to the medium-term financing of
the social security system, taking demographic transition (the ageing
population) into consideration as well as the need to free up resources for
economic growth.
Debunking the myths
Among other factors, the social security system has faced difficulties as a
result of the non-implementation of the budget assigned to the system as
stipulated by the Federal Constitution of 1988. From the beginning of the 1990s,
rhetoric regarding the social security deficit has gained strength, despite the
fact that all sources of evidence (including official ones) show the opposite,
even when using different methods of analysis. Individual contributions continue
to be the only consideration, although the system has several additional sources
of income which allow it to produce a surplus year after year.
Contributions to social security established by the Constitution and later set
up in order to finance the system include the Social Security Financing Tax
(COFINS), the Legal Entity Net Profit Social Tax (CSLL) and the Provisional
Financial Movements Tax (CPMF), as well as the net social security contribution,
which basically refers to the payroll contributions made by employers and
employees and contributions from the Simplified System (Special Unified System
for the Collection of Taxes and Contributions of Micro and Small Enterprises).
As regards expenses, the following items are taken into account: payment of
urban and rural social security benefits, welfare benefits, and the actions of
the Single Health System (SUS), as well as actions related to the financing of
the Ministry of Health and its return to sound administration and
accountability. According to the ANFIP (2005), the primary surplus of the social
security budget in 2004 amounted to BRL 42.5 billion (USD 21.5 billion)
(Boschetti and Salvador, 2006).
If there is a surplus, the argument that it is necessary to reduce government
spending on social security in order to redirect resources towards investment so
that the economy can grow is clearly absurd. At the end of the day, social
security has not harmed the progress of the economy; on the contrary, the
economic policy which is being implemented affects social security, undermining
both its principles and its budget.
The problem is that part of the resources of social security are diverted in
order to make up the primary surplus (to pay interest on foreign and internal
debt), by means of the Dissociation of Union Contributions mechanism. Not
content with that, the government places limits on additional resources
throughout the year, which does indeed cause a deficit in the social security
system.
The lack of
recognition for domestic work
There
is also talk about the need to reform the social security system because of the
increase in the number of elderly people in the country, which could make the
system unviable in the near future. To those who support this thesis, the rights
achieved by women up to the present represent a threat to the sustainability of
the social security system. It is argued that women retire five years before men
and live an average of eight years longer, and therefore cost the Treasury 13
years in extra expenses.
As regards the ageing of the population, it is worth noting that the issue of
care for the elderly is completely absent in discussions about the future of the
system. This omission is directly related to the lack of recognition and
consequent undervaluation of the unpaid domestic work carried out by women.
Social reproduction activities (domestic tasks, child care, care of the sick and
of the older adults in the family group) make a significant contribution to the
social and economic development of the country, but continue to be relegated to
the kind of tasks which are carried out as part of ‘women’s vocation’ and
are consequently absent from the agenda of the debate on labour rights.
If domestic tasks were taken into account, they would represent a 13% growth of
Brazil’s GDP (Melo and Considera, 2005). However, reproductive labour does not
generate rights, but rather an extremely heavy load on women who, as well as
that burden, must face the prejudices that result from insertion in the labour
market under absolutely unfair and unequal conditions. As a result, women are
often obliged to interrupt their working lives, turn to the informal sector, or
even be fully excluded from the labour market. The higher proportion of women in
more vulnerable and poorly paid jobs is a reflection of this fact.
Data collected by CEDEPLAR/UFMG (Development and Regional Planning
Centre/Federal University of Minas Gerais) in 1997 show that women make a higher
number of transitions between activity and ‘inactivity’ throughout their
lives. While men remain in each occupation for an average of 15.2 years, the
average length of stay for women is 8.9 years. This is one of the results of the
sexual division of labour. And in this area, reality is hard to change.
This information shows that the proposal to put an end to the differentiated
retirement age for women (five years before men) in compensation for their
double work load is untenable. The difference between the length of stay in an
occupation for men and women is 6.3 years (CEDEPLAR/UFMG). However, a comparison
between the number of working hours devoted to domestic tasks shows that women
work at this type of activity at least double the amount of time as men. In
fact, for there to be real compensation, a difference in retirement ages of over
five years would be required. As we understand it, this should be a transitory
measure. What women’s and feminists’ movements want is not compensation, but
the equal division of productive and reproductive tasks, as well as equal
conditions of participation in the labour market.
In 2005, according to the Ministry of Social Security, 30.7% of women’s
retirements were due to age and only 6.8% due to length of contribution.
Consequently, if the issue of informality is considered, women work for longer
than men in order to ensure their retirement pension, but receive a lower
pension due to their diminished capacity to contribute and their dependent
condition.
Women face double discrimination
Many people who have spent most of their economically active lives in the
informal labour market, particularly in urban activities, are at a double
disadvantage due to the demands of individual taxation, since they have
contributed to the wealth of the country at a low cost, without having received
the benefits of the National Social Insurance Institute (INSS) or the Guarantee
Fund for Length of Service (FGTS), nor paid unemployment insurance (and
therefore were unable to exercise their labour rights). In old age, these
persons will be affected once again, since they will not be able to enjoy their
rights to social security.
Rural working women have been struggling for years to obtain recognition as
small agricultural producers. The cultivation of vegetable gardens and medicinal
plants, and the raising of small animals, is absolutely vital for the survival
and support of their families, but it is rendered invisible and is undervalued.
In consequence, their rights as workers are not acknowledged. Meanwhile, the
most serious situation is that of almost six million women, mostly in the rural
areas, who do not possess any kind of documentation and are therefore denied all
the rights of citizenship.
When the racial dimension is brought into consideration, the situation becomes
even more unjust. Black and racially mixed women, subject to multiple forms of
discrimination, end up concentrated in the most precarious occupations and in
informal labour. The high concentration of black women in domestic employment
(22%) should be noted, as well as in the categories related to production for
personal consumption, construction for personal use and in unpaid labour. On the
other hand, white men most often appear in the position of employers (7.5%
against 1.3% of black women) and as employees with an official work card (38.4% vis-à-vis
20% of black women).
The case of domestic workers in particular deserves special attention, and an
urgent solution should be provided by the social security system. Immediately
guaranteeing the right to retirement of domestic workers who are currently 60
years of age or older would constitute a measure of reparation. This is a
significant contingent of women who are subject to sexual and racial division of
labour and have achieved a quotient which as a general rule is the lowest in the
socioeconomic scale in terms of recognition, performance, quality of life and
labour rights, but on the other hand is the highest in terms of duties and
limitations as regards reproductive tasks.
Ensuring the sustainability of social security
Ensuring the sustainable increase in the number of beneficiaries and the
transformation of the demographic profile, from the actuarial point of view,
depends on several factors, including the broadening of the sources of financing
for social security. In our view, the fact that the labour market does not offer
adequate conditions which enable each female worker to make her individual
contribution to social security does not mean that she has no right to be a part
of the social security system. Other mechanisms are required to safeguard the
life and citizenship of women. This implies dissociating social rights from the
traditional employment model, and in particular, dissociating the right to a
retirement pension from formal employment.
In this sense, the actuarial sustainability of social security could be
constructed on the basis of a re-evaluation of employer exemption criteria and
amnesty for debtors; combating evasion; the creation of new rates and taxes
consistent with the principle of solidarity and the redistributive nature of
social security; the imposition of taxation on great wealth, international
financial transactions and agribusiness; the creation of a solidarity fund based
on a specific contribution; broadening the contributive capacity of workers by
increasing employment and other work opportunities; the creation of different
tax models compatible with the multiple productive arrangements that workers
have established for their survival; and the creation of the appropriate
conditions for young workers to be able to join the system early and thus
contribute for many years to its sustainability.
The reorientation of the developmental model is evidently a basic premise in the
construction of alternatives for inclusion in the social security system.
Economic policies should be devoted to guaranteeing the rights of the
population, and not the other way around.
References
ANFIP (2005). “Análise da Seguridade Social 2005”,
<www.anfip.org.br/publicacoes/livros/index.php>.
Boschetti, I. and Salvador, E. (2006). “Orçamento da seguridade social e política econômica:
perversa alquimia”. Serviço Social
& Sociedade No. 87, São Paulo: Cortez.
CEDEPLAR/UFMG
(Development and Regional Planning Centre/Federal
University of Minas Gerais), <www.cedeplar.ufmg.br>.
IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research), <www.ipea.gov.br>.
Melo, H. and Considera, C. (2005). “Os afazeres
domésticos contam”. Economia. Textos
para discussão 177. Universidade Federal Fluminense. Rio de Janeiro.
<www.uff.br/econ/download/tds/UFF_TD177.pdf>.
Ministry of Social Security,
<www.mpas.gov.br/aeps2005/14_01_04.asp>.
PNAD (National Household Survey) (2004). Brazilian Institute of Geography and
Statistics:
<www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2004/default.shtm>.
Note:
Articulação
de Mulheres Brasileiras, Articulação de ONG’s de Mulheres Negras, Campanha
Nacional das Donas de Casa pelo Direito à Aposentadoria, Federação Nacional
de Trabalhadoras Domésticas, Marcha Mundial das Mulheres, Movimento
Interestadual de Quebradeiras de Coco de Babaçu, Movimento de Mulheres
Camponesas, Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais do Nordeste.
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