Faced with a radical change in Congressional conformation, the secretary of the legislative union affirmed that they will not allow unjustified layoffs, even if they are partisan workers.
Following the announcement by Ernesto Castro, elected deputy of the New Ideas Party and emerging as the new President of the Assembly, that there will be a profound “restructuring” in the administrative part of the legislative body, the employees of this entity in job insecurity.
The general secretary of the Assembly’s union, Luis Ortega, explained that they will defend all positions of the workers who actually perform their duties, regardless of whether they are members of political or institutional parties.
“The constitution is very clear and Article 218 says that civil servants and workers are at the service of the state, not any political faction. We can never see that because the deputy sheriff is ready, the employee has to leave, ”said Ortega.
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The instability of work among administrative staff is due to the fact that the composition of the Assembly changed drastically after the February 28 elections.
The ARENA bank has been significantly reduced from 37 delegates to 14; the FMLN was reduced from 23 to 4 legislators; the PCN, from 9 to 2 alternates; PROFIT, from 10 to 5; and the PDC, 3 to one.
This leads to a new organization of the employees who are assigned to the legislative groups. However, ARENA’s deputy Norman Quijano asked the forthcoming Assembly for “humanity” with the workers, given the unemployment situation in El Salvador. Even Guillermo Gallegos, from GANA, an ally of the ruling party, said they will make sure the impact on workers is as small as possible.
“The only thing that would be attractive is in the sense that the seniority of legislative workers is respected because the least the country needs is instability, especially labor and to be consistent with respect for labor standards, because absolute power (63 votes) does. don’t give them the right, ”said Quijano.
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Castro, the elected deputy of New Ideas, has said in recent days that when they have the exact details of the final check that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) expects to culminate this Wednesday, they plan to audit the Assembly. before taking possession of the new legislature.
“By the time we have the exact input on the situation of the Assembly, all that dark situation that has arisen emerges, we will be making the relevant decisions. We are going to change the idea, where we are very determined, is to change absolutely everything, the way of working, the commissions, ”Castro explained to YSKL radio.
Gallegos insists that there will no doubt be a purge in the Assembly, which is not GANA’s idea, but that they are determined to look into that situation in detail.
“ We will have to adapt to the new reality, this means that these people will have to end their position, there are also people who have gone from parliamentary to institutional groups, these cases will have to be reviewed, I am working on criteria, we haven’t talked about this, but yes, it is important that all Assembly staff have peace of mind, behind every person is a family, ”said Gallegos.
Castro, the likely new legislative president
Until the election, Castro was President Nayib Bukele’s private secretary, and during the election campaign, he emerged as the man who will take over the reins of the Legislative Assembly.
In fact, Castro said they do not intend to share ownership of the Assembly with any other party, that New Ideas will retain the helm of the legislative body that will take effect May 1, 2021 until April 30, 2024, despite the fact that they have a number of councils won in coalition with GANA.
In this regard, Gallegos pointed out that New Ideas also plans to reduce the number of members of the Board of Directors, which is currently 11 alternates.
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Quijano was the one who carried out the last restructuring when he was chairman of the General Assembly in the first period of the current term, going from 14 directors to 11.
“The Assembly from May 1 will be completely different from what we are used to administratively, there may be a reduction in the number of members of the Board of Directors and many more things that have been thought of,” said Gallegos.
Quijano, Gallegos and PDC Deputy Rodolfo Parker agreed that it has not analyzed how the transition phase from the current term to the next will take place, but there is a debt that the government will have to pay even if the current delegates end. . its functions and is payment to suppliers.
“The Treasury Department is required to make this transfer, we assume it will now implement it,” said Parker.
In December 2020, the Chairman of the Assembly, Mario Ponce, of the PCN reported that the debt owed to the Assembly’s suppliers was approximately $ 1.1 million, which is eight months behind because the Treasury had failed to pay them the money to honor the payments. .
Parker said he is unaware that the Treasury made a transfer to cancel the Assembly’s suppliers. “I don’t know there has been a transfer,” he explained.