Caixa Econômica Federal branches resumed in-person service after Brazil’s Superior Labor Court (TST) ended a national strike that had begun on September 10. The court found the stoppage was not abusive, but ordered employees to return immediately and set a 4.6% salary adjustment—the same rate applied to the health plan.¹

For Caixa, the ruling closed the collective bargaining case that it had referred to the labor courts and allowed customer service to be restored. The bank had sought a collective labor ruling on September 23, after 54 rounds of talks and at least three health-plan proposals failed to win workers’ approval. Before the final decision, the court had required the union to maintain 60% of staff, either in person or online.¹

The central disagreement was not the wage percentage alone, but the future cost of Saúde Caixa. Employees argued that changes to contributions and dependent coverage would effectively cancel out their pay rise. They said the effects would fall particularly heavily on mothers who are household heads, citing the way charges for dependents could be structured.¹

The court’s terms preserved the existing 3.5% employee contribution based on base salary and retained a 7% cap. Caixa’s final proposal had offered to raise its health-plan funding ceiling from 6.5% to 9% of payroll from 2027, while setting higher employee and dependent payments in later years. It also proposed a higher family-income cap and a rise in emergency-care copayments.¹

The outcome therefore delivered the immediate result sought by the bank and customers—reopened branches—while leaving the underlying contrast intact: Caixa presented its offer as a way to sustain the plan, while workers saw its prospective costs as undermining the settlement.