On Tuesday, Manuel Adorni, the spokesman of President Javier Milei, announced that the Argentine government will not renew around 7,000 public contracts next year and will review over one million social plans to detect irregularities.
Nor will the public contracts registered in 2023 ending on December 31 be renewed in 2024. The rest of the public worker contracts will enter a review process in the next 90 days.
These decisions will affect all temporary employees of the Federal administration and Argentine public institutions. Only workers from state-owned companies will be excluded.
Adorni maintains that some 160,000 beneficiaries of social plans would be benefiting from aid in an “irregular” manner, which means that they would stop receiving public resources worth about US$12.4 million.
“Argentines should not be responsible for this money,” the presidential spokesperson said, adding that the Milei administration seeks to make monetary transfers transparent so that social plans stop functioning as a business for the leaders of social organizations.
More specifically, state cuts mainly will affect the workers of the National Social Security Administration (ANSES), the Comprehensive Medical Care Program (PAMI) and the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP).
After the decree announcing the dismissal of 7,000 workers was made official, Daniel Catalano, the secretary in Buenos Aires of the State Workers Association (ATE), accused the Milei administration of leading Argentina towards a process of generalized poverty.
“They are leading us to be like Haiti. It’s crazy,” he said and asked people to join the mobilizations called by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).
“The government wants to show blood,” Catalano stated and stressed that laying off 7,000 workers who earn US$243 a month does not solve any macroeconomic problem but only harms 7,000 families.
