The cut of workers in public companies will be progressive

Ecuadornews:

The Government reiterated yesterday that, until February 20, 2019, the state companies must present the plan of disengagement of workers, but that does not imply that until that date all the cuts are made. “The decoupling can be progressive, the plan is delivered and then (the cut) and depends on each company,” said Sergio Enderica, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Public Company Coordinating Company (Emco). 

On February 6, this state firm sent an official letter to the 21 companies, where a 10% adjustment is made to the payroll. The Government estimates that between 3,000 and 3,500 employees will be separated as a result of the measure, which will save USD 60 million per year. However, this reduction cannot happen at any moment, since the provision of services provided by the State through public companies must be guaranteed, the official explained. 

The managers, representatives of the workers, some ministers and assembly members met yesterday to analyze the situation of the public firms and define actions to optimize resources. The situation of these organizations is “unsustainable,” said José Agusto, secretary of the Presidency. Of the 21 companies, 25% have problems. “They are with losses, there are problems of efficiency and quality of service. So, there is a certain overweight in current spending and a part of that is a human resource, “explained Enderica. 

The rest of companies is viable, said the owner of Emco. According to official data, the firms under their coordination currently report 39 100 workers. To achieve the adjustment, especially of personnel, the parties involved in the process agreed to form working groups. 

The Single Confederation of Workers (CUT) supported the decision to lower the wage bill. “We are going to support labor stability, but we will not be accomplices to some positions that have been created without a technical profile,” said Richard Gómez, president of the CUT Guayas. At the meeting, the guild presented several proposals to optimize spending. One of them is that the trimming of public servers is done from the superior hierarchy. “We must start with the management and advisors who do not fulfill specific functions,” said Oswaldo Chica, national president of the union. 

The leader gave as an example the processes of this type that are carried out in the National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT). According to Chica, this strategy will reduce personnel by 16%, including voluntary and retiree departures. CNT is the second public company with the largest number of workers, after Petroamazonas. 

As of December last year, it registered 7 144, according to the transparency portal of the company (see graphic). Other companies with heavy workload are the National Electricity Corporation (Cnel) and Petroecuador. The representatives of the workers also raised the transparency of procurement processes and public purchases to optimize expenses. For other unions, such as Unitary Workers Front (FUT), the announced dialogues are not enough. 

The representative of the union, José Villavicencio, urged the Government to present a technical study that shows the situation of each company before taking action. The Optimization Plan that public companies must submit to Emco for validation should reflect the reduction in payroll, taking as reference the month of December 2018. 

The representative assured that each of the companies has the money to comply with the payment of settlements. In addition, he noted that there is a commitment by Finance to allocate resources for this to be fulfilled. (I)

Source: https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/recorte-trabajadores-empresas-publicas-emco.html