POLITICS | Final offer. The secretary of labour relations at the planning ministry, Sérgio Mendonça, said on 18 August that the latest 15.8% pay deal for striking civil servants is “the maximum” offer that the federal government is prepared to make. The deal was offered to 18 of the 36 striking public sector unions. Federal police officers were offered the same last week after a 24-hour strike. Mendonça stressed that a final deal must be agreed by 31 August so as to adjust the 2013 draft budget bill. The 15.8% would be staggered between 2013 and 2015. Separately, President Dilma Rousseff vetoed 15 items in the 2013 draft budget law prior to approving it on 17 August. It now goes back to congress.
- Venezuela’s see-saw growth swings up in time for the 2012 election
- Ecuador secures regional support over Assange
- Humala’s public family spats continue
- In Brief – Brazil
- El Salvador’s institutional crisis ends
- Puerto Rico rejects constitutional changes
- A bloody weekend in Mexico
- In Brief - Mexico
- Private company to commercialise marijuana