State workers are so far acing a new “suitability assessment examination” introduced by President Javier Milei’s government. Buoyed by the news, their union is demanding their permanent employment.
Of the initial 10 percent of public employees evaluated to date under the test, 96 percent have passed the examinations imposed by the government. On the basis of the results, the ATE state-workers’ union is insisting that those on temporary contracts or categorised as self-employed should have their situation regularised and become permanent staff.
The new evaluation of the public administration workers who must renew their contracts began this month under new rules decreed by the Deregulation & State Transformation Ministry, headed by Federico Sturzenegger, a top ally of Milei.
According to Rodolfo Aguiar, the national secretary-general of ATE union, of the 4,156 employees examined, 4,002 passed the test. That figure represents slightly over 10 percent of the total number of workers due to be evaluated this month, a group of some 40,000 public employees.
“It seems that the donkeys in the state are not we workers, but the officials as from December 10, 2023. They have failed in this illegal attempt to keep stigmatising and denigrating public employment,” maintained Aguiar in a post on the X social network.
“The workers should thus be granted their constitutional right to [job] stability and incorporated into the permanent state staff,” he added in a piece entitled 'Al Gobierno le salió el tiro por la culata con los exámenes’ (“The exams backfired on the government”).
He accompanied the post with images created by artificial intelligence showing Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and President Milei sitting an exam.
After learning of the initial results, Aguiar warned: “We have to establish a mechanism which permits us to take the exams and leave evident the administrative incompetence of the directors, secretaries, undersecretaries and ministers.”
Aguiar’s claims refer to the examined employees having precarious contracts, – i.e. not belonging to the permanent state staff but having transitory contracts or figuring as self-employed. Many wind up their contracts at the end of the year with their jobs up for renewal.
So far this year government dismissals have reduced the state payroll by 30,936 jobs, according to the data from the INDEC national statistics bureau, lower than the estimate briefed by the Milei government.
Central administration, the Correo Argentino post office, ANSES social security administration, CONICET scientific research council and AySA waterworks were the most affected sectors.
Despite ATE’s claims, passing the exam does not even guarantee rehiring. It is, however, a requisite for staying on the job as those remaining must present the “certificate of suitability.”
Although ATE Capital Secretary-General Daniel Catalano previously said that he would place loudspeakers to dictate the answers to the workers during testing, that did not happen.
Employees were evaluated for reading comprehension, logical mathematical reasoning and public administration, according to the ATE.
Aguiar called in his social media post for members of the government, including cabinet ministers, to take the test.
“After this, we have to start thinking that the entire cabinet has to be evaluated. We have to establish a mechanism that allows us to take exams and expose their managerial incapacity, from directors to secretaries, undersecretaries and ministers, all those positions that are not elective,” he declared.
– TIMES/PERFIL