Review of studies lists flaws in the application of the law that reserves places for black people; project in Congress tries to review loopholes
One review of studies made by People Forward Movement shows that the Law 12,990/2014which reserves 20% of federal public administration positions for black people, has been dribbled in its 10 years of application.
The Senate approved on Wednesday (May 22, 2024) the PL (Bill) 1,958 of 2021which increases the quota to 30%, extends the quotas for another 10 years and curbs dribbles in their application.
The project still needs to be approved by the Chamber. The current law is valid for 10 years from approval. It will cease to be valid on June 8 if new legislation is not approved.
Splitting of vacancies
The current rule determines a 20% quota for black people whenever a competition offers 3 places or more. But studies list evidence that, instead of issuing a notice with 4 vacancies, for example, 2 notices are made with two vacancies each. Therefore, the quota requirement does not apply.
The splitting of vacancies is mentioned in 16 of 34 studies on the law reviewed by the Movimento Pessoas à Frente. One of the studies (read the complete) has 2 examples of signs of fraud identified:
- in 41 of 182 competitions (22.5%) of the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) from 2014 to 2018 there was splitting, despite the training requirements being the same;
- The 2016 competition for a doctor at UFRJ had only one vacancy. But then 28 more people were approved in a supplementary call, without applying the quota. Five black people were no longer called using this criterion.
“The division of vacancies is one of the problems, especially when we think about careers such as university professors, which tend to hold competitions for just one vacancy”, says Luiz Augusto Campos, a researcher who worked on reviewing studies.
O Power360 He contacted UFRJ to ask if he would like to comment on these cases. The university informed that it could not because the institution’s employees are on strike. The space remains open.
Bureaucratic barriers
In addition to the problems mentioned above, the studies also list the following as obstacles:
- unnecessary bureaucratic barriers for quota holders;
- judicialization of notices;
- lack of teams to carry out the assessment of quota application.
Increase in the proportion of blacks
Despite the limitations, there has been an increase in the proportion of black people in the federal public service since the law was applied. It went from 37.3% in 2013 to 39.9% in 2023. The percentage of black people (who declare themselves black+brown) in Brazil is 55.5%.
Another study with less current data, from Ipea, shows that the percentage of black people entering the civil service went from 30.7% in 2014 to 42% in 2020. Currently, 573 thousand employees work in the Federal Executive.
One of the surveys cited in the People Front Movement review cites the fact that the black candidates who benefited are concentrated in higher income segments of the population.
In the sample analyzed, 72% of the beneficiaries had a family income greater than 5 minimum wages (R$ 7,010 in current value), 49% had their own home and 47% studied in private schools in high school.
Clearer rules
The law is valid for 10 years. It loses validity if it is not renewed by June 8, 2024. The PL 1,958/2021 approved in the Senate on Wednesday (May 23, 2024) proposes renewing the policy for another 10 years and includes some mechanisms to avoid this type of loophole.
“If the project is approved, we will have to apply quotas to every 2 competition vacancies and not to every 3 competition vacancies, as before. This makes it easier to apply quotas [e evita os dribles na regra]. Furthermore, the project has an article that says that the Ministry of Education will establish infra-legal regulations to avoid the splitting of places”says researcher Luiz Augusto Campos.
Furthermore, the project under discussion adds the following items:
- ethnicities – in addition to black people, the reservation of vacancies would now include quilombolas and indigenous people;
- % of quota – would go from 20% to 30%;
- evaluation rules – the new rule brings clearer parameters to the process of confirming self-identification.
Opposition senators opposed the project approved in the Senate. They said it would be better to implement rules to benefit low-income people more broadly.
The senator Rogerio Marinho (PL-RN), leader of the Opposition, said that quotas serve to “divide Brazil”.
The project rapporteur, Humberto Costa (PT-PE), stated that there are poor white people, but that black and indigenous people predominate in the low-income population. This, in Costa’s assessment, justifies the quotas for these groups.
The approval of the project in the Senate was positive in the assessment of the People Front Movement. “Improves points of the Public Service Quota Law after reviewing ten years of implementation experience”, said Jessika Moreira, executive director of the Movement.
“It is crucial that the text that will be voted on in the Chamber is kept as it is, ensuring mechanisms that guarantee the effective summoning of quota candidates, more legal security and data transparency”, stated Moreira.
Why does this matter
Because the data above shows that Brazil has made progress in promoting more equal representation of black people in civil service. They also show, however, that there are a series of issues to be improved. The 10 years of validity of the law that establishes a quota of black people in the federal civil service coincide with a discreet advance in representation and with a series of “dribbles”, as identified by the studies reviewed by the Movimento Pessoas à Frente. Advances so far are discreet. More black people need to be present in relevant positions and policies need to be able to anticipate possible application problems. There is no simple solution to something that has gone untreated for so long in the country.
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