Brazil to dock strikers\' pay

The Brazilian government said Wednesday it would dock the pay of striking public sector employees, the state-run news agency said. The Brazilian Planning Ministry said 11,495 employees' August salaries will be docked due to their strike, which had lasted for two months with public sector employees from some 30 unions, including healthcare workers, university teachers, federal police and fiscal auditors, demanding salary increase. The government has offered a salary adjustment of 15.8 percent for all categories of employees over a three-year period, but the unions have rejected the offer for insufficiency. Saying its offer was the most it could afford, the Brazilian government broke off negotiations while the strike sees no end. The Brazilian government docked the salaries of 1,972 striking employees in July. The Federal Public Sector Workers Confederation (Condsef) said the number of public employees on strike surpasses 350,000 while the government estimated the figure is about 70,000 to 80,000 or 15 percent of all active public workers.