The Budget Commission integrated with the Treasury of the Senate received a delegation from COFE, in the framework of the discussion of the Government’s Rendering of Accounts.
In this framework, the union of state officials questioned the validity of the Executive Decree that establishes that only one third of the vacancies in the State may be filled, which leads to an “alarming” situation, due to the lack of personnel.
“We reached an agreement with the National Civil Service Office regarding the regularization of workers with precarious contracts, but we are concerned that this amendment to the articles has not reached Parliament. We raised it before the Commission, since something should be done quickly, because next week the Rendering of Accounts would be voted on,” said the president of COFE, Martín Pereira.
Medical licenses
On the other hand, COFE questioned the measures proposed in the Rendering of Accounts referred to the discount of 25% of the salary for medical licenses, because with this “nothing is solved and collective bargaining has not been respected.”
By deducting 25% of the salary for certifications, the government intends to “make money with the health of the workers,” Pereira denounced.
The union leader said that according to the lawyer Daniel Ochs, said article “would be unconstitutional, since it is deducted directly from the salary, for which it is not a subsidy, as stated in the Rendering of Accounts.”
As a solution, Pereira expressed that it is necessary to generate more controls, in reference to medical certifications, and, at the same time, strengthen the Social Security Bank, since the agency has declared that “it does not know who the doctors who certify are.”
“Today, a worker goes with a prescription from any mutualist, even if it is not his, and it is certified the same, so there are many controls before reaching the salary discount,” said Martín Pereira.
Although COFE agrees that the “abuses in medical licenses” should end, in any case the solution is not through the discount to the worker. “The salary, when the worker is sick, is when he needs it most; and the worker who lies about the certifications, is not only cheating the State, but is also failing to comply with his colleagues who have to do twice as much work”.
