2024-07-19 02:54:53
In an attempt to replicate the model of cuts applied to the former news agency Télam, which reduced its staff by 50% in recent months, the Government launched today a voluntary retirement plan aimed at all public media that make up Radio Televisión Argentina (RTA), headed by the new administrator Eduardo González.
According to the newspaper La Nación, the government’s intention is to reduce “as much as possible” the payroll of the 2,400 employees that make up the universe of public media. The measure comes after the former RTA intervenor, Diego Chaher, assumed the position of Secretary of State Enterprises.
“Radio y Televisión Argentina, RTA SE has arranged the opening of the Voluntary Retirement Plan (PRV) for all its staff at Public Television, National Radio and Channel 12 of Trenque Lauquen,” RTA authorities announced in a statement released today. According to the established regime, the procedure includes two modules: one specific for all employees “who are not in a position to retire” and another special one for those who are close to retirement.
According to official sources, “the company reserves the right to accept the resignation,” taking into account the “valuation” of each employee. That is, the managers of each area will make a prior list of the personnel they consider essential according to the “requirements” and “needs” of the different sectors.
“RTA SE may accept or reject withdrawal requests, this being its exclusive and exclusive power. Among other aspects, compliance with the stipulated requirements, profile and structure needs, as well as economic parameters for the calculation (limits) and respective availability of resources, etc., will be considered,” the statement highlights.
“If there is a person who we do not want to leave because we consider him valuable, we can refuse his retirement and in that case he would have to resign,” said those close to the intervention.
RTA also indicated how each of the retirements will be made up depending on the age of the employees. On the one hand, in the case of those up to 56 years of age, for women, and 61 years of age, for men, the company maintains that it will offer “one month of gross salary for each year of seniority, plus one gross salary, and a sum equivalent to 20% of the concepts previously mentioned.”
This option can also be received in two variants. The first establishes “a special one-time bonus” that will pay an amount equivalent to three gross salaries. The second proposal, on the other hand, stipulates: “Payment of an amount equivalent to 90% of the gross salary in equal and consecutive monthly installments for the remaining period from the month after signing and up to the month in which the employee meets the retirement age requirement inclusive.”
“Voluntary retirement cannot represent less than 100% of the compensation plus an additional 20%, translate those close to the Government,” emulating the same offer that the intervention proposed in the case of the Télam news agency, to which around 350 employees signed up.
However, the story told by Télam workers differs considerably from the official view. In most of the cases consulted by this newspaper, there was talk of an offer that did not exceed 60% of compensation. Unlike the mechanism applied to the news agency, on this occasion RTA, now in charge of González, made official the amounts that it will offer its employees.
On the other hand, early retirees will also have access to two retirement options. The first offers “a sum equivalent to 3 gross salaries plus the amount resulting from the sum of 20% of the best salary, for each of the remaining installments of the plan.” The second establishes the payment of an amount equivalent to 70% of the gross salary in equal and consecutive monthly installments, for the remaining period.
The opening of voluntary withdrawals in public media comes after RTA was excluded from the Ley Bases as a plausible company to be privatized and days after the Government made official the transformation of Télam into the State Advertising Agency Single-Member Public Limited Company (Apesau), a single-member public limited company dedicated to advertising content.
“Télam Sociedad del Estado will cease to operate, as it was originally created, in the activities of journalistic services and as a news agency, justifying the modifications of its corporate purpose in the need to align its operations with a new strategic focus of the company to operate as an Advertising and Propaganda Agency, concentrating the company’s resources in that area that offers greater opportunities for growth and profitability in the long term,” was highlighted in Decree 548 published in the Official Gazette.
In this way, the Executive ratified the change of name and corporate purpose of Télam, which from now on will begin to operate as an advertising and propaganda agency. According to what this media was able to learn from sources close to the Casa Rosada, the plant will be made up of 90 employees from the respective specialized areas who did not accept the voluntary retirement plan promoted by Chaher, after President Javier Milei announced the closure of the state company, during the opening of legislative sessions.
At the same time, the Government is preparing this week for the transfer of almost 150 journalists employed by the state-owned company to the orbit of Radio Televisión Argentina (RTA), who will also be eligible for voluntary retirement.