The Argentine president, Javier Milei, has resumed his agenda to reduce the State to a minimum after the Christmas break. In his third week in office, the ultra president has signed a decree that ceases the contracts of state workers who joined in the last year. The Government estimates that “more than 5,000” are affected, while other sources, such as the Association of State Workers (ATE), estimate that the figure exceeds 7,000. The number could grow, as the Government will also review the contracts of public sector workers employed before January 1, 2023 in the next 90 days, and unions are on alert.
The decree published this Tuesday in the Official Gazette establishes that State worker contracts signed as of January 1, 2023 will not be renewed. The measure contemplates some exceptions: for example, workers who are part of “regulated quotas” are exempt. by law or other types of special protections”, such as people with disabilities, or personnel who are considered “indispensable” to a jurisdiction. The text also anticipates that the rest of the contracts will be subjected to “an exhaustive survey” in the next 90 days.
In his first speech as president, Milei had already anticipated that the adjustment his Government promises will be paid for by the State and not the private sector. The cut began with the Cabinet of Ministers, when the far-right limited the number of portfolios to nine, half of those in the previous administration. The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, announced as part of the first economic measures the reduction of the state workforce. The decree published this Tuesday is one more step in the Government's roadmap and aims to “achieve better functioning of the Public Administration.”
The Argentine public sector has a total of almost 3.5 million salaried employees, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor, of which a tenth belong to the national Administration. The personnel expenditure of the latter represents 2.2% of GDP, according to a report from the consulting firm Ieral – Fundación Mediterránea, a percentage that has been reduced since 2015, when it was 3.3% of GDP. According to this analysis, the participation of public employment in the budget “is close to the Scandinavian countries and the opposite of Japan and Germany.”
The Association of State Workers (ATE) has described the decree as an “aggression” against these workers and has considered in a statement that public employees “in all cases perform tasks that are essential.” “No one expects us to accept a single dismissal,” warned Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of the Association of State Workers (ATE), in a statement released by the organization, which warns that the union intends to “go deeper” his “fighting plan”.
The claim will be heard this Wednesday in a call made by the country's union centers to also demand that the decree signed by Milei a week ago with 300 reforms to dismantle the Argentine State be stopped. Last Wednesday, the president presented another decree of necessity and urgency that repeals laws, eliminates dozens of state regulations, enables the privatization of public companies such as the oil company YPF and opens the door to operations in dollars. He also gives the kickoff to make the labor market and the health system more flexible.
The claims of the workers, who consider that the Milei adjustment falls on the most vulnerable sectors of the population, will be made in a climate of tension marked by a new protocol against street closures. The plan was announced by the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, almost simultaneously with the economic measures and went into practice for the first time on December 20, when tens of thousands of people came out to protest surrounded by strong security measures.
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