Over the past year, President Javier Milei’s government used special emergency powers and public employment reforms contained in its ‘Ley de Bases’ mega-reform to enforce sweeping lay-offs across Argentina’s state-owned companies and autonomous public bodies.
The move was driven by Federico Sturzenegger, Milei’s deregulation and state transformation minister. A year on, as the government’s special powers expire, three entities top the list of redundancy rankings: Correo Argentino (Post Office), the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero tax agency (ARCA, formerly known as AFIP) and Operadora Ferroviaria (commonly known as Trenes Argentinos).
Sturzenegger, who served as Central Bank governor under former president Mauricio Macri, led the reduction of staffing numbers across the state apparatus, leaving practically no agency or public company untouched. Among state-owned companies, Correo Argentino saw the greatest number of redundancies (4,945), followed by Operadora Ferroviaria (2,293), state carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas (1,780), Banco de la Nación Argentina (1,689) and the Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos (AySA) waterworks with 1,577.
Following AySA came the Agencia Publicidad del Estado (644, a consequence of the break up of the Télam state news agency), the Casa de Moneda national mint (576) , Corredores Viales (537) highways body, arms manufacturer Fabricaciones Militares (371) and the Belgrano Cargas cargo firm in tenth place with 358 departures.
Among decentralised public bodies, the hardest hit were ARCA (2,996), the ANSES social security agency (1,423), the CONICET national scientific research institute (985), the Navy General Staff (787), communications regulator ENACOM (778), the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI, 726), National Road Directorate (510), SENASA food health agency (482), National Registry of Persons (RENAPER, 479) and the ANDIS national disability agency (468).
Several of the cuts ordered by Sturzenegger triggered union responses. For instance, the SECASFPI union representing ANSES workers filed a case in the labour courts, arguing most of the dismissals amounted to union persecution. National Labour Court No. 6 sided with the union led by Carlos Ortega, ruling that 84.6 percent of those dismissed were union members. The government has appealed the ruling.
In proportional terms, Télam was one of the worst hit, losing 79 percent of its workforce. It was followed by ENARSA Patagonia (66 percent), the National Council for Social Policy Coordination (64 percent), the Transport Safety Board (44 percent), INAES (41 percent), ENACOM (38 percent) and the National Agency for the Promotion of Research (37 percent). The National Cancer Institute also fell victim to the government’s ‘chainsaw’ approach: it has lost 36 percent of its workforce compared to last year, and the remaining staff warn of serious operational issues.
Government officials have hailed these figures. Last week, Milei and Sturzenegger attended an event at the Casa Rosada, at which the President hailed his deregulation chief, describing him as a “colossus.”
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