Buenos Aires, April 7 (NA) – The Human Resources Office of ANSES has been instructed to activate pending cases in the files of numerous employees due to repeated absences, questioned medical licenses, fraudulent certificates, and other irregularities, in order to proceed with their immediate dismissal. The deadline for receiving applications for mutual voluntary retirement has been extended until Friday, the 24th of this month, to which, it is reported, 1,000 employees have already applied. Union sources admitted to the Noticias Argentinas agency that there were many administrative cases on hold from previous administrations, even because they were shielded by union protection to remain in their positions, but that now this coverage has been removed. The threat circulating is that with the already sanctioned labor reform, files of up to 10/15 years of seniority will be scrutinized to verify each rate of absenteeism and to directly dispatch the telegram to those who have taken advantage of medical licenses and other resources to shirk their work obligations. It has been reported that data is being cross-referenced with Migrations to detect if those who justified absences during that period left the country. Those also under scrutiny, according to hallway rumors, are those hired to handle benefits now abolished, which had public service points across the country. Their tasks were to process retirement applications under the moratorium contribution regime, and since that exceptional system was discontinued, they have been almost inactive. The fear of the employees is that if offices are closed or sold in this instance, they will be left without tasks due to having nowhere to go and will consequently be dismissed or reassigned to inconvenient locations. In the building where the Human Resources Office operates, agents have been prepared, according to hallway comments, to handle the disaffiliations, whose target was set at 2,500, including dismissals, retirements, and reassignments. Change on the fly The postponement of the deadline to submit the mutual voluntary retirement offers made by ANSES is related to this strategic change on the fly of purging files by applying dismissals with cause, i.e., without indemnification, before resolving the agreed-upon exits that recognize 90% of the salary and a seniority cap of 24 years for liquidation purposes, payable in two installments when exceeding 100 million pesos. It has been reported that more applications could emerge in the two extended weeks, because with such a short deadline it was impossible to meet the requirements established by the agency for interested parties who, as a prerequisite to advance with the form, had previously withdrawn any ongoing legal action. It was also speculated that those hovering near retirement age may have reconsidered the offer and done the math that by receiving two years' salary in advance in a context of salary freezes, they would avoid having to show up and would immediately transition to their pension. Women with seniority who chose to continue working five more years after turning 60, instead of retiring, would be evaluating whether to take the retirement, collect it all at once, and immediately start the process to receive their pension right after. According to the internal survey conducted by HR before launching the voluntary retirement offer to employees under 62, there were 1,400 employees of retirement age with contribution years and 300 on contract, so between forced retirement if they are pressured and the non-renewal of those commitments, they would add up to 1,700 departures. If it is confirmed that 1,000 applications had been received by the deadline on Monday, there would potentially be about 400 more in a position to join before Friday the 24th, and if the non-renewal of the three hundred contracts is added, only 800 dismissions would be missing to reach the number. The acceleration of dismissals with cause would bring the organization much closer to the 2,500 target, so it would not be necessary to force active personnel of retirement age to retire, speculate within the organization.
