With some nuances, the unions view the government’s move with distrust and, despite the modifications that were introduced in the law that was approved on Thursday in the Legislature, The vast majority believe that any type of change that occurs in the Retirement Fund will impact negatively. Yes, there is agreement on the need to claim for the Nation’s debt.
Amsafe has an intransigent position regarding the discussion about the Fund: total rejection. The public teachers union is standing still and does not accept any changes.
In ATE They raise objections, they say they do not know what the government’s plan is and that they will not accept “setbacks in matters of rights.” The retirement age? A possible topic to discuss.
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In the Association of Legislative Staff (Apel) They have a similar vision. And from Siprus They oppose discussing the issue, now, “because of the context we live in and because of those who govern us.”
According to the project approved by the Legislature, the unions will have four places on the commission whose objective will be “to study, prepare and write a report regarding the sustainability of the pension regime.”
Union leaders say they are willing to express their opinion, but they are not satisfied with the number of spaces they will have, since they understand that they are few.
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“We don’t know what the reform is about. “They are just assumptions or comments, but no real information,” warned Jorge Hoffmann, Secretary of Political Action of ATE Santa Fe.
Retirement reform: the range of union positions
“Any attempt to modify the pension system of the province of Santa Fe will surely result in the loss of workers’ rights. There is no other alternative in the national and provincial context that we are experiencing. Of course we are going to oppose that,” he told AIR Sergio Bruschini, head of the Pension Secretariat of Amsafe.
In a lower tone, Leandro Goldsack, secretary general of Siprus, shows many similarities with the teaching sector. “We point to the refusal of the reform due to the context and who are the actors who are trying to reform. If we were in a moment of expansion of rights, I would say that we reform the fund, but we are in a moment of restriction of rights,” said the union leader of health personnel.
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Jorge Hoffmann, Secretary of Political Action of ATE, is cautious about the discussion: “We don’t know what the reform is about. “They are just assumptions or comments, but no real information regarding what should be modified.” However, he set a limit and said that “what would not be tolerable is any reform that implies a decline in income.”
Meanwhile, since Apel They said that they are not closed to the discussion, but they want to wait until there is something concrete to discuss, because “it makes no sense to give an opinion without text.”
Can the retirement age be changed in Santa Fe?
This topic is where the palette of postures has different tones. Hoffmann believes that “with the current regime, there are people who can retire at 55 or 57 years old. It seems to me that it deserves to be reviewed, always thinking about what social security is, which is the protection of old age. It is difficult to understand that at 56 or 57 you are already out of active life as a worker, no one can be considered old at that age. It seems to me that it is an element to discuss.”
However, the union member indicates that “special regimes must be taken into account depending on the activity.” Along these lines, he gave as an example “nurses who, at 58 or 60 years old, find it very difficult to physically perform care for the sick. “These are exceptional situations that must be considered.”
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The public sector unions of Santa Fe mobilized on Thursday, June 13, towards the Legislature in rejection of the retirement reform.
Beyond his position, the ATE leader explained that if changes are implemented “it is something that cannot be proposed from one year to the next, I don’t know how many years, but surely over five, six or seven years. If I am one or two years away from retiring, it would be inconceivable that I would have to continue working for more years than one was entitled to.” On the other hand, he questioned the possibility of compensating two years of excess service for one of age. “This thing about anticipating retirement because the 30 years of contributions were exceeded is something to be seen or analyzed,” he said.
The teaching sector rejects any change in the retirement age. They claim that it would lead to “long-lived teachers at all educational levels” and a “decrease in educational quality,” according to Sergio Bruschini. In turn, the Amsafe member assured that the change “would imply that there are fewer vacancies, there will be no transfers or tenures. And the higher institutes are going to start running out of students because you are going to study for five years and then not have a job.”
In response to the query of AIR Regarding whether it would be possible for a teacher to continue working after the age of 60, contributing from somewhere other than the classroom, Bruschini rejected it and said: “They would have to remove the oldest teachers from the position and there would be an older teacher.” young. It would be a double expenditure that, in this context, if the government proposes that, we distrust. It would be a siren song that I don’t know how I would fulfill.”
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“It is true that there is a longer life expectancy, but we have to see under what conditions that life is reached. Not just because you have life, it is a life that has all the conditions to be worthy. For example, in Spain or France they work even bigger, but how does a Spanish worker live? Do they work under the same conditions as him here? In Europe something else happens, they have more salaries, more vacations. Things are being extrapolated that in our opinion are not all correct,” says Goldsack of Siprus.
The deficit of the Santa Fe Retirement Fund
The government affirms that one of the most important drawbacks is the red color of the Santa Fe Retirement Fund. The head of the Amsafe Pension Secretariat rejects this position and assures that “the deficit of the fund is something temporary. In real, not nominal, terms, the deficit is falling and if that happens there is no need to make a reform to supposedly solve that problem.”
“The deficit does not reach 2.60 of the budget. And if you take it to what exports generate in the province, it is 0.96, it does not reach a point. The governor said it at some point and I am going to take his words, the State must be financed with those who have the most,” stated the teacher representative.
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In Siprus they talk about the need to claim the debt from Milei and see how the red comes from. “There is a discourse that has to do with the deficit, in part it has to do in part with the debt that the Nation has. But we also have to segment or sectorize to see how this deficit was produced, what are the origins and what are the ways to modify the conditions of the different sectors that make up the box,” Goldsack.
On the other hand, in all unions there is a coincidence in demanding what the National State owes the province. “We are arguing about nothing, the problem of the deficit arises, but we can forget that the national government does not contribute. There is a non-discussion, therefore it is very difficult to give an opinion,” Hoffmann added.
