Guido Carelli Lynch
09/29/2020 - 18:06
Clarín.com
Politics
On repeated occasions, President
Alberto Fernández
rejected the possibility that his administration officials would resign part of their salary to offer a gesture to citizens in the midst of the crisis deepened by the pandemic and quarantine.
“
Let's not be hypocrites
, they are the ones who later call us populists.
Let's not be demagogues and earn our pay accordingly.
I am part of a government of civil servants that you call them at 7 in the morning they are there and you call them at 1 in the morning and they are there, and they always have answers for everything ", said the head of state in April, when the economy it collapses 26.4 percent, according to official numbers.
Now, the President resolved that the political officials of the Executive Power will not obtain a salary improvement for the remainder of the year.
In practice, it represents a loss of the wage bill close to 20 percent, according to the more benevolent inflation projections that they handle in the Casa Rosada.
The Executive's decision is in line with the administrative resolutions of
Cristina Kirchner
in the Senate and
Sergio Massa
in Deputies, who frozen the legislators' diet until December 31.
The political officials of the Executive, along with the rest of the public administration, had received
an increase of 5 percent in January and the same
in February, which sought to rebuild the salary scale after
Mauricio Macri
freezed salaries in the heat of the crisis in 2018 and enabled a 25 percent increase in 2019, when inflation finally climbed to 53.8.
Agreement with state governments: ATE vs UPCN
Fernández's decision was known this afternoon after the government closed an agreement with the state unions to grant them a 7 percent increase starting in October.
"No political official is going to have an increase," said Cabinet chief officials.
The clarification is also contained in the minutes of the meeting that state officials and officials held at the Callao headquarters of the Ministry of Labor.
Negotiation.
The meeting in the Ministry of Labor between representatives of the Government, UPCN and ATE.
The rest of the joint public sector companies - companies and autarkic organizations - will be in line with this general joint organization.
"The decision is to build a consistent salary policy for the entire public sector," said official sources who participated in the negotiations with ATE and UPCN.
In December, the Executive will sit again with the unions to discuss a salary recomposition.
Last Tuesday, the state companies - which in addition to the increase in January and February had only received a non-remunerative bonus of $ 4,000 for salaries below $ 60,000 - rejected the initial offer of the Government of a 15 percent increase in 4 installments (4 % in October, 3% in December and 7 percent the following year).
The salary improvement proposed by the Executive fueled the rift between the two state groups.
UPCN, the majority union, approved the proposal.
ATE, meanwhile, did not agree, but in practice it must accept joint negotiation.
“The proposal is to cushion the drop in wages, but it does not recover anything.
We are not going to recognize a salary reduction like the UPCN did ”,
Hugo“ Cachorro ”Godoy
, secretary general of ATE, said before Clarín's query.
The also leader of the Autonomous CTA was lapidary with
Andrés Rodríguez
, his UPCN counterpart, who was absent from the meeting and who in the previous one had threatened possible protest measures.
"This agreement has more to do with a tradition of an eternal ruling party that exists among some leaders than in a real closeness with the Government," Godoy pointed out in clear allusion to Rodríguez, who in the last month participated in two
meetings with the President
and is working on organizing an act in favor of the Government on October 17.
In ATE they do not rule out mobilizations against the Executive to press for salary improvements as of October 6.
This Wednesday it will be defined in a plenary session of the organization.
The agreement of the Province - aided by the President - with the Buenos Aires Police
accelerated the negotiations
between the Government and the state authorities.
At the Casa Rosada they originally intended to postpone the negotiations until October, but they had to give in.
This time, on behalf of the Executive, the Secretary of Public Employment
Ana Castellani was present
, absent from the first meeting.
Also from the game were her second, Mariano Boeiro;
and Florencia María Jalda, Undersecretary of Budget of the Ministry of Economy, among others.
Without Rodríguez, on behalf of the UPCN, the union secretary Alejo Conde and the secretary of Union Subcoordination Marta Farías appeared.
"We continue working in technical tables to discuss working conditions both in person and remotely," they added in the Government.
Due to the quarantine, only 30 percent of the public administration works in person.
The negotiation of the Government with the national states is essential to set a reference for the provincial and municipal administrations.
The strategy of the national Executive is similar to that adopted by
Axel Kicillof
.
With a different joint calendar, the Province offered this Tuesday an increase of 10 percent until December, which for now does not have the approval of the unions.
