With the unions on alert, the multisector commission was formed that has the thorny task of analyzing the situation of the Santa Fe retirement fund.. He goal at the end of the roadthe different actors agree, it is move towards a pension reform that makes the system sustainable. The discussion is how.
The debate about the solidity of the pension fund became more pressing in December, after the decision of Javier Milei’s government to close the tap and cut off the advance of funds to the provinces that did not transfer their pension systems to Anses.
Governor Maximiliano Pullaro promotes an ordering of the Santa Fe retirement regime, within the framework of a restructuring of the other large savings banks that the province has: Iapos, Aguas Santafesinas and the EPE.
In this framework, the Senate and Deputies exchanged projects on the pension issue. The Lower House won in ping pong and the commission has a more limited objective.
Instead of proposing a new reform project, The collegiate body has the mission of analyzing the pension regime, based on the increasingly intense red of the box.
Finally, this commission met for the first time this Wednesday, in the city of Santa Fe. Representatives of the Executive Branch, legislators and union members have chairs.
Who makes up the commission
The new body is chaired by Rodrigo Borla, head of the Constitutional Affairs commission of the Senate, and is supported by Pablo Farías, who heads the same body in Deputies.
Rubén Pirola, Alcides Calvo, Esteban Motta, Oscar Dolzani, Hugo Rasetto and Raúl Gramajo participate in the Senate.
Meanwhile, for Deputies, the names proposed are José Corral, Gisel Mahmud, Astrid Hummel, Rubén Galassi, Natalia Armas Belavi, Walter Agosto and Emiliano Peralta.
Jorge Boasso, Secretary of Social Security of Santa Fe, was appointed by the provincial administration; Alicia Berzero, director of the Retirement and Pension Fund; Malena Azario, in charge of Human Resources and Public Function of the Ministry of Economy, and Julia Tonero, Legal and Technical Secretariat of the Government portfolio.
Finally, the unions with the largest number of contributors have their seats guaranteed: UPCN, ATE, Amsafe and Festram.
Besides, Other unions and organizations with interests in the topic will be invitedsuch as the Judiciary and the College of Magistrates, and a grid will be put together with the entities that want to participate in the discussion.
According to the law that created the commission, The body has 45 calendar days to study the issue and submit its report. However, if the authorities consider it necessary, this period can be extended.
Time
Although the law establishes that the function of the body is diagnostic, the ruling party does not rule out that reform ideas may arise from the commission. “Proposals can be collected, although we have not yet discussed the characteristics of the final report, whether it will be more decisive or a report on the state of the situation,” Corral told The capital.
For the ruling party, time is of the essence. La Casa Gris intends to send its own project at the beginning of August.
“The concept is to save the fund, keep it at the provincial level, not transfer it to Anses, and make it sustainable. Special regimes have to exist, but with corrections. The view is unanimous, there is no way out and the bleeding must be contained,” says a senior official of the Gray House.
In Unidos, where different radical, socialist and PRO tribes coexist, as well as other smaller parties, there is still no unified position. Although some consensus does emerge.
>> Read more: La Casa Gris aspires to open the formal debate on the pension reform in August
“The system has to be public, distributed and respecting the 82% mobile. The mirror is the disaster of the national pension system, which does not pay even 50% of what the active earn in most activities, and where retirees cannot even recover from inflation. To avoid that, we have to make the box sustainable,” says Corral.
Another legislator from the ruling alliance adds: “We must discuss the ages, the benefits and how they are computed. “Buying for years is unsustainable.”
The position of the unions
For now, the unions enter the debate with their guard up.
“We are against establishing limits, that is one of the temptations when talking about retirements, at the national level it exists. We believe that we must respect the salary structure that each sector has and that it was contributing, that cannot be affected,” said the head of UPCN Santa Fe, Jorge Molina.
Regarding the retirement age, the union member left the door open to debate: “I would not like to venture opinions. Here the fundamental premise is that the fund is sustainable with the national agreements that are established by law. At UPCN we will defend that the validity and possibility of retirement being an acquired right of the workers who contributed and of those who are still active”.
