Politics Chainsaw Plan: how many jobs did the Milei government cut at the start of the administration - Infobae

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Chainsaw Plan: how many jobs did the Milei government cut at the start of the administration - Infobae​

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Plan Motosierra: cuántos puestos de trabajo recortó el gobierno de Milei en el arranque de la gestión

Infobae relevó el personal cesanteado en los distintos ministerios, organismos y empresas públicas, según los últimos datos publicados por el INDEC. Cuáles fueron los que tuvieron mayor cantidad de despidos. Pese a los dichos del Presidente de que se “echaron” 50.000 empleados públicos, la cifra...

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March 10, 2024

Infobae surveyed the laid-off personnel in the different ministries, organizations and public companies, according to the latest data published by the INDEC. Which were the ones that had the greatest number of layoffs. Despite the President's statements that 50,000 public employees were "laid off", the figure would be lower



In line with the “ chainsaw plan ” that President Javier Milei proclaims in his “anti-caste” speech, the cuts began to be applied to the State personnel since the libertarian arrived at the Casa Rosada. This week began with the announcement of the closure of the state agency TELAM and, in recent days, new dismissals in AySA and layoffs in the National Communications Agency (ENACOM) and the General Administration of Ports were announced. There would be more layoffs in other state organizations and companies and, at the end of the month, the extension of the contracts of public employees who were under that modality expires, arranged on December 31 when the new management was just arriving. However, the reduction in jobs in the State is less than the 50,000 employees that Milei claimed to have “launched” in his speech at the inauguration of the school year at the Cardenal Copello College, which he had attended as a student.

Discurso de Javier Milei en el Colegio Capello

Discurso de Javier Milei en el Colegio Capello

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Speech by Javier Milei at Capello School
In the central Administration alone, 4,000 employees were laid off in the first month of the year, according to Infobae 's calculation , based on the latest data published by INDEC on March 1. But the figure is higher if we consider the casualties that occurred in December and those that include more than 130 national organizations.


Between July 2023, the last year of Alberto Fernández's administration , and the end of January 2024, the reduction was 9,253 jobs . The state plant went from 343,106 in the middle of last year, to 333,853 people at the end of the first month of the year, almost 3% less, according to the latest data published by INDEC. Of that figure, 8,227 employees belonged to the Central Public Administration and another 1,026 to the 125 companies and companies of the State.




In all ministries and public organizations, the Government of La Libertad Avanza decided to carry out economic and financial audits to determine debts and expenses to be cut, and a survey of human resources to identify what functions its employees perform and corroborate whether they come to work . According to official sources, there will be more personnel casualties as part of the “chainsaw plan” in all agencies. They assure that “those who work and have assigned tasks will continue. The rest will leave.”



The largest cut - 8% - was recorded in the Central Administration , which includes the Presidency, the 9 ministries - which were reduced by half with the new management -, and the Chief of Staff. It went from 55,486 employees last July to 50,973 in January, a total of 4,513 fewer employees, of which 4,041 were laid off in the first month of the year.




In second place appears the deconcentrated administration , which brings together the Armed Forces, the Security Forces, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC), the Office of the Treasury of the Nation, and the National Foreign Trade Commission, and concentrated other 1,730 dismissals. There were 24,839 employees last July and, at the end of January, there were 23,109 (a decrease of 7%).

Within these figures, in addition to permanent staff, non-contracted staff and contracted staff are included. As their contracts ended on December 31 - except for those who began working in the last year of the previous administration, which were not renewed - they were extended for 90 days to subject the work they perform to evaluation. This review period ends on March 31, so there would be more personnel losses in the State.

Layoffs in February​

Although INDEC has not yet published data for February , layoffs in the State continued last month and, as Infobae was able to reconstruct , they amounted to 1,420 .


This is the case of AYSA , which dismissed 21 people in the first two months of Milei from the 7,790 that were there when it arrived. By the end of January, the state water and sewer company reduced the plant to 7,769 workers, but in recent days another 200 dismissals were added. From the company they assured that the dismissals corresponded to "political positions" that responded to Malena Galmarini, summary personnel or with unjustified absences. Union sources declared themselves on alert and called for a strike for tomorrow, Monday, as they warn of a plan to cut the number of another thousand workers.

There were also recent layoffs in ENACOM, which moved - like state companies - into the orbit of Chief of Staff. The agency's intervention, ordered by the Government on January 29 for 180 days, dismissed a new batch of 50 agency workers on Wednesday. The dismissal process had begun in the first days of January, when the entity was under the administration of the defunct Ministry of Infrastructure, and 35 employees were laid off. At that time, the organization had 1,935 employees (in July 2023, it had 1,970). The head of the Chief of Staff, Nicolás Posse , reported that an audit and a reorganization would be carried out as preliminary steps towards a restructuring of the institution.

On the last day of February, the National Government added 160 laid-off workers at the National Disability Agency (ANDIS) , to the 17 laid off in the first month of the year, so the plant was reduced to 1,220 people. The dismissal notifications were signed by the director of the organization, Diego Spagnuolo , who sponsored Milei in different judicial measures that he carried out before becoming President.

Added to these are 170 layoffs at the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA) , another 100 dismissals at National Radio and about 600 more in the area of Social Development , which depends on Human Capital.

Those laid off in the ministries​

From the analysis of the cuts in the Presidency and the different ministries carried out by Infobae , according to INDEC data from January, it emerges that the Chief of Staff recorded the largest loss of personnel, almost 13% , with 391 layoffs . It went from 3,057 employees last December to 2,666 in January. The portfolio analysis carried out by this means took into account the mergers and reorganizations of the centralized Administration that Milei's management carried out upon arriving at the Casa Rosada. Thus, for example, the Chief of Staff recorded this reduction, despite having incorporated the allocations from the former Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the former Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency.

The Presidency of the Nation follows , with a 10% cut , since, from a plant of 1,840 people, it was left with 1,564 employees ( 186 less ) in the same period. With the arrival of Milei, the Presidency incorporated the Media Secretariat under its direct orbit, which was previously under the Chief of Staff.



The Ministry of Human Capital also had an almost 10% cut in its personnel, the largest observed at the ministerial level, despite the fact that it incorporated the resources of the former Ministries of Labor, Employment and Social Security; Women, Gender and Diversity; Education; Culture; Social Development and the former National Secretariat of Children, Adolescents and Family. Since INDEC did not report its personnel in December, given that it did not have data on the number of employees of the Ministry of Women, Infobae calculated the number by taking the data from last November and adding the organizations that the ministry led by Sandra Pettovello absorbed . where the worst bleeding occurred. The sum resulted in a staff of 19,552 people as of December, which had dropped to 17,638, a total of 1,914 fewer employees , by the end of January.

This week, this ministry announced that it will close 59 Reference Centers (CDR) that depended on Social Development, as reported in a statement, “ they function as political boxes and State gnocchi shelters,” and will generate “ a savings of $5,000 million annually.” As they explained, “more than 600 public employees who earned a total of $4,000 million per year will be fired.”

The now dissolved Ministry of Infrastructure , absorbed by the Economy portfolio, went from 3,288 employees in December to 2,922 in January ( 366 fewer people ), with a drop of 11% . Meanwhile, the ministry headed by Luis Caputo had 8,623 employees in December and, the following month, it registered 8,030, that is, there were 593 employees discharged (a staff reduction of 7%). However, it is feasible that this number has grown again today due to the organisms that Caputo was absorbing.

A similar percentage of personnel cuts (7%) occurred in the Ministry of the Interior , since in December it had 3,111 employees and in January it reported 2,893 (218 fewer employees). These layoffs occurred despite the fact that this portfolio, headed by Guillermo Francos , incorporated the personnel corresponding to the former Ministries of Environment and Sustainable Development, Tourism and Sports, which became secretariats.

In the Ministry of Justice , where Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona said he had found people without functions, people living in one of the buildings and staff without a desk to work on or assigned tasks, there were 81 layoffs , 5% of the staff). Of the 1,490 employees registered in December, at the end of January there were 1,409.


The Ministry of Defense, led by Luis Petri , had a similar drop of 5.5% : it registered 1,155 employees in December and in January, 63 fewer were registered (1,092 in total).

In the Foreign Affairs portfolio , the reduction was almost 2%, with 61 laid off . It had 2,953 employees in December and 2,902 in January. A similar situation occurred in the Ministry of Health , with a loss of 177 employees (2% of its staff), going from 8,765 workers in that portfolio to 8,588.

In the only ministry that there were practically no changes was in Security. Its plant registered 1,179 in January, only one person less than in December.

The cut by organizations​

When he announced the closure of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) , on February 22, the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni , maintained that “one of the axes of Milei is the reduction of the State, the elimination of what does not generate benefit", and that "the decision was made to move forward in the dismantling of institutes that serve no purpose, that are large boxes of politics, places to generate militant employment." In that sense, he added: “ We are not going to continue financing political threads or places where favors are paid.”

"We began to move forward with the first of them, the INADI, we began with the definitive closure of the organization, which has nearly 400 employees, dozens of offices in the country, institutions that have the peculiarity that on many occasions they are led by officials of dubious suitability". However, its dissolution has not yet been finalized since it could not be resolved by a simple decree, having been created by a 1995 law, after the attack on the AMIA. As of January 31, INADI still had the number of 423 employees reported when the current management took over.






Then the National Atomic Energy Commission appears , whose plant grew from 3,531 to 4,123, with an increase of 592 employees (almost 17%). It is followed by Aerolíneas Argentinas , which went from 11,426 to 11,899 employees at the flag airline ( 473 new positions , 4%). SENASA also appears on the list , with 353 new employees , going from 5,570 in July 2022 to 5,923 in November 2023 (an increase of 6%).

In those 17 months, Banco Nación also increased its workforce by 334 employees , going from 17,472 people to 17,806 (an increase of 2%). With the same percentage, the ANSES appears , with an increase of 287 new positions (from 13,692 employees to 13,979) in November 2023, compared to July 2022.