The dairy firm Productos Refrigerados Sociedad Anónima (ARSA), one of the companies that was within the Vicentin holding company and is currently managed by the Venezuelan Maralac – which in Argentina also operates with La Suipachense – cannot get out of its labyrinth. This week Federal justice seized an $83 million embargo following a complaint from the Atilra dairy union for failure to pay social charges and employer contributions. Just when a part of its workers had returned to work in the company after an extensive stoppage in its production plants and after the company entered bankruptcy last February.
According to reports this Monday, there will be a hearing between the union and the company. But the truth is that the scenario is at least complex because neither of the two parties finds a point of contact.
On the one hand, the company details that the payment of employer contributions was not made because the payment of salaries of employees who had started working after months of inactivity was prioritized.. In total, ARSA employs more than 500 people, of which around 200 had returned to work.
A no small fact is that the company had offered months ago a “job alternation” regime in which workers work half the time and are paid weekly.. This alternative was flatly rejected by Atilra, but a group of workers decided to return to their activities more recently. That is why, despite the conflict with the union, in recent weeks, company products have appeared again on local shelves.
ARSA was for many years called “the jewel of Vicentin”, in fact the dairy firm was the desserts and yogurt division of SanCor that sold it to the Vicentins in 2016 for around US$100 million. With the fall of the agro-export company and its million-dollar bankruptcy, the future of the dairy company began to look at least unclear.
new owners
In the first instance, the BASF investment fund took charge of the operation, but then it ended up in the hands of another Uruguayan fund that finally gave control to the Venezuelan Maralac. The crux of the matter is that this investment group could not acquire 100% of the firm’s shares because a small part belongs to the Vicentin family and they are in the judicial dispute over the bankruptcy of the agro-exporter.
Later in time, the new managers of ARSA made the decision to compete, alleging the drop in consumption in the domestic market. On the other hand, from the beginning they warned that the workforce was vastly superior to the productive needs of the firm. In any case, as of the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company entered into a spiral of conflicts with its workers due to non-payment of salaries.
The last chapter arrived this week with the embargo decreed by justice and given this situation lThe company circulated a statement among its workers that warned: “This judicial measure puts at direct risk the company’s possibilities of complying with the salary payments of the more than 200 workers, who currently perform duties at the company plant. company. This action occurs strikingly after the company announced an improvement in the weekly remuneration conditions for these collaborators. As a consequence of this measure, although as of today, the agreed weekly payment has been made, we cannot guarantee compliance with payments for the coming weeks in this context, generated irresponsibly by ATILRA, which while saying “prioritize “people’s work,” makes decisions that directly attack sources of employment, putting workers at serious risk.”
In response, ATILRA released another statement in which it remarked: “We are not going to respond to the business pamphlet – worthy of a stand-up script – since it is totally unserious to try to blame the justice system and the union for the mismanagement and debts of ARSA. But we are concerned about the quasi-criminal actions of those responsible for the company given that, due to the permanent violation of the Employment Contract Law, the Collective Agreement, and the tax evasion that implies the diversion of funds corresponding to the Social Security system , ARSA now adds a new pearl: In the real address that they denounce to justice, occupants who are unaware of the company respond.
From now on, the meeting between the parties scheduled for next Monday will be key, but the truth is that the scenario is looking increasingly gloomy for the company that used to be Vicentin’s jewel.
Source: Ambito
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