Thousands of state employees were fired on Friday in a new wave of layoffs further cutting policies centered around memory and reparation for dictatorship victims, the fight against gender-based violence, and welfare programs.

In most cases, workers received informal notifications by email or WhatsApp on Friday afternoon letting them know their contracts were not being renovated, according to union representatives.

In a report published on Sunday afternoon, the national State Workers Association (ATE, by its Spanish initials) recorded 2,300 total layoffs on Friday. A government source told the Herald there had been an estimated 5,000 layoffs but did not officially confirm the number. More formal notices are expected to be issued on Monday morning.

“These layoffs can be translated as citizens losing their rights,” said Rodolfo Aguiar, head of ATE at a national level, in a communiqué published Sunday. “Public jobs are tightly connected to social, economic, and cultural rights, which the state has to guarantee via public policies.”

The most affected areas, according to ATE’s register, include what remained of the ex-Women, Genders and Diversity Ministry (450 layoffs or 80% of its staff) and the Social Development Secretariat (370). State programs belonging to what used to be the Women, Genders and Diversity Ministry are now being operated with the bare minimum of personnel or nobody at all, according to ATE representatives from that area.

“None of the programs are certain to continue, they have been completely dismantled,” said Nani Smith, union representative at the former ministry from ATE Buenos Aires city branch.

Two key initiatives against gender-based violence saw their staff cut in half this week, they added: the Acompañar program, which provides survivors with a monthly stipend, psychological support and legal assistance to escape violent situations, and the 144 line, Argentina’s hotline for assisting victims. Only 15 people remain working at the hotline per shift, and even fewer over the weekends, with only six operators per shift.

Smith added that amongst those laid off were some who were pregnant, on prolonged sick leave, and people who were supposedly protected by the travesti-trans labor quota. On Monday, ATE representatives from those areas will meet with Justice Ministry authorities to monitor the working conditions of the remaining employees.

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Other affected areas are the Industrial Technology National Institute (INTI in Spanish, with 285 layoffs), the National Parks Administration (79), the Human Rights Secretariat (58) and the INCAA Film Institute (20).

ATE’s register is not considered fully comprehensive given that more notifications are expected on Monday onwards, and some entities and regions have yet to be monitored.

This is the third wave of massive layoffs in Javier Milei’s administration: the first was in December, with around 5,000 people fired, and the second was in March, with another 14,000 estimated by ATE. Most public employees are hired under temporary contracts that have to be periodically renewed, and only a few are part of the permanent staff. Those affected had temporary contracts which ended at the end of December, March and June, and were not renewed.

Workers from memory sites, the National Memory Archive, the Unified State Terrorism Victims Register, and the Reparation Policies Directorate have also been laid off. All of those areas belong to the Human Rights Secretariat. “We see these layoffs as the start of the dismantlement of this secretariat and the human rights policies the Argentine people agreed upon many years ago,” said a communiqué published Saturday by ATE representatives from the Justice Ministry and the secretariat.

Around 360 Social Development workers — pared down from ministry to secretariat by Milei — were laid off on Friday, adding to the 1,040 fired in March and 300 in December. “All employees who did on-the-ground work have been fired and 56 local reference centers that allowed people to access public policy federally have been shut down,” said Ingrid Manfred, head of the ATE representatives board at the secretariat. “The authorities want to replace them with a phone line. They are completely abandoning those who are most vulnerable.”

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