He Government of Javier Milei He said on Thursday that the University teachers’ salaries increased by 71% since December, above public sector employees, which increased by 58.5%. Since the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) They questioned the figure: “It’s false”.
The Ministry of Human Capital that leads Sandra Pettovello defended the salary policy for workers in the university education sector, after repeated criticism of the delay in updating salaries expressed throughout the first semester, in parallel with the demands for increases in budget allocations that led to the April march.
“All sectors of society are doing their part. Part of the adjustment also has to do with the supervision and transparency of superfluous expenses in universities. However, there is still resistance to identifying many of these excessive and unjustified expenditures, such as courses with a lack of students and teachers,” they initially stated.
They then pointed out that “from December to July, the increase in the salary of the staff of national universities is higher than the guideline established for the salaries of the national State, in the same period,” with university teachers “increasing their income by 71%, while that of State employees by 58.5%.”
According to Capital Humano, during this period “the annual budget allocation for the operating expenses of the university system for 2024 increased by 270% in total” and denounced that “in 2023, coincidentally or not, it was completely frozen without any voices being raised in protest, as if there had been no inflation during Alberto Fernández’s government.”
“Unlike in 2023, transfers to universities for operating expenses are up to date, far from the delays of up to three months of the previous administration,” they stressed.
The UBA’s response through Emiliano Yacobitti
The ministry’s statement Pettovello elicited a quick response from Emiliano Yacobitti, Vice Chancellor of the UBA. who reported that “the published data is false”. “It takes into account the impact of salary agreements for university students held during the past year and omits the complete collective bargaining agreement that the government itself signed with the rest of the state employees for the month of February.he said regarding the disparity of figures.
On the other hand, Yacobitti He used the figure released by Capital Humano to reflect the impact of inflation on salaries: “What Capital Humano said when it recognized the brutal adjustment to university salaries in relation to the inflation suffered so far this year is CORRECT. To measure the salary loss in universities, the accumulated inflation is practically double the updates recognized by the Ministry itself to university professors and workers,” he said.
Following this line, the vice-chancellor of the UBA He denied that all sectors are doing their part. “It is FALSE,” he stressed, since “the richest are seeing their taxes lowered” while “thousands in universities really do their part every day, with basic salaries in many cases below the poverty line, committed to education which is the key to a prosperous future for Argentina.”
At the end, he accused the Government of “underestimating” investment in education “by calling it superfluous.” And He called on officials “to reflect, demanding a decent salary for university professors and workers.”
Source: Ambito
