PNN – In line with one of the main promises of his election campaign to reduce the structure and size of the government, the president of Argentina announced the layoff of about 7,000 government employees with recent contracts.
According to Pakistan News Network’s report from El Mundo newspaper on Wednesday, in the decree signed by the President of Argentina, Javier Millay, it is stated: The employment contract of people who started providing services on January 1, 2023 will not be renewed.
As unions across Argentina prepare to rally in protest on Wednesday, the published decree warns that employment before 2023 will also be subject to a “comprehensive review” over the next 90 days. The Argentine government has ordered the authorities of each jurisdiction to declare whether the presence of employees hired before January 1, 2023 is necessary in public institutions and their work should be renewed or not.
In his first speech as president, Xavier Milli predicted that the promised adjustment would be paid not by the private sector, but by the government. This downsizing of the government structure started with the Cabinet of Ministers, when the new far-right government limited the number of ministries to nine (half of the previous government). Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced the reduction of the government workforce as part of the first economic measures. The decree published on Tuesday is another step in the Argentine government’s road map and aims to “achieve a better performance of public administration”.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor, Argentina’s public sector has a total of approximately 3.5 million salaried employees, one-tenth of which are employees of the National Administration (the main body of the government). According to the available data, the cost of this sector of government employees is 2.2% of the GDP; That percentage has decreased since 2015, when it was 3.3 percent. According to this analysis, the share of public employment in the budget is “close to the Scandinavian countries”.
The Association of Public Employees (ATE) described the order as an “aggression” against these workers and said in a statement that government employees “in all cases perform duties that are necessary.”
Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of the Public Workers Association, warned in a statement released by the organization: “No one expects us to accept even one layoff.”
Last Wednesday, the President of Argentina presented another emergency decree that includes extensive deregulation; It allows for the privatization of state-owned companies such as the YPF oil company and provides the basis for dollar-denominated operations.
Argentine workers believe that the adjustment will affect the most vulnerable people.
According to Al Pais newspaper, Milli must negotiate with other political forces to achieve the transformation of the country he is looking for. Although it won 56% of the votes in the second round of the elections, it is in the minority in both houses of Congress: in the House of Representatives, it holds only 38 of the 257 seats and in the Senate, eight of the 72 senators.
Reducing the number of government employees was one of Milli’s campaign promises, which aims to shrink the government to reduce the fiscal deficit and return to the path of economic growth.
According to Milli, the size and inefficiency of the government is one of the reasons for the country’s permanent economic crisis. Argentina’s ruling ultra-liberals insist: the government is the problem, not the solution.