The government of Luis Lacalle Pou finished preparing the preliminary draft of the social security reform, an issue that has generated much prior debate both in political sectors and among citizens.
The draft would be ready to be sent from the Executive Branch to the five parties of the multicolored coalition, in the first instance, and then to the Broad Front for analysis, according to publications by Underlined citing sources from within the Presidency.
The issue of the potential increase in the retirement age would not be closed, according to these sources, so alternatives are proposed and it is not considered a closed point.
Rejection from various sectors
The reform has generated, from the outset, rejection in the workers’ unions and in the ranks of the Broad Front.
In mid-June, the Confederation of State Officials (COFE) had filed an administrative appeal against Decree 195/022 “updating the organizational structures and jobs of the central administration sections.” In the brief, the workers affirmed that “Decree 195/022, added to other measures such as the massive reduction in wages, the reduction in retirement benefits and pensions, the reduction in rights, the new medical leave regime, the very possible inclusion of social security reformpositions the government coalition in an anti-popular agenda, where the vast majority of the population of our country will be harmed”.
For Fernando Pereira, president of the FA, the reform should not fall on the weakest. “The government states that the social security reform must have the support of the FA, but it acts in the opposite direction. If they had the will to bring the parties together, they should have summoned us in a timely manner, which they did not do. Now there is an electoral calculation to define how much it costs the government coalition to vote for a reform”, he said last May.
“The government has to take charge if there are transformations that it considers urgent, otherwise it was not so urgent or they were not going to take charge,” he said.
In interview with LARED21 In June, the former Minister of Labor, Ernesto Murro, stated: “If they want to make the reform (of social security) they can do it, they have plenty of votes. They have had time to prepare a bill, why don’t they do it? I think there are internal issues of the coalition in the government that are weighing.
And he added: “This government has carried out a silent reform that is underway” (…) “retirement and pensions will once again lose purchasing power. They are already making a reform, the worst reform they make if they do it, since they have plenty of votes”.
