Governor Alberto Weretilneck has sent the Río Negro Legislature a bill opening a new path to permanent status for temporary provincial employees. The proposal could be considered at the session on Thursday the 6th and sets December 31, 2025 as the cutoff date. ATE estimates that about 4,200 contract workers could apply, although the executive branch has not released an official figure.
The plan follows the process established by Law 5511, approved in August 2021 for workers hired through the end of 2020, but adds further screening. Every applicant must undergo a pre-employment medical examination and receive a favorable performance report from Human Resources. Applicants must also prove their competence through an assessment and demonstrate the physical and psychological fitness required for their duties.
Continuity of service is another central condition. The text requires workers to have performed normal and regular duties without interruption until they formally enter the permanent staff, and excludes anyone who accumulated ten days of suspension during the previous two years. An administrative investigation or criminal case does not automatically remove an employee, but it suspends the application until an administrative or judicial decision is reached.
At the same time, the bill broadens the ways in which continuity may be demonstrated. Employment will not be deemed interrupted when a worker held union duties, occupied political or elected office, changed agencies or moved between contractual arrangements, provided that continued service can be documented. The definition seeks to organize work histories that did not always remain under a single administrative category.
The immediate scope, however, is focused on contract staff. Workers linked to the province through other arrangements remain outside the bill for now, including some paid through teaching-hour contracts that were never converted. Weretilneck left open the possibility of addressing certain cases in the regulations when they involve permanent and regular duties, but ruled out sports or cultural appointments that he considers temporary.
A Central Executive Commission composed of representatives of the executive branch, ATE and UPCN—the two unions on the Public Service Council—will manage the process. It will apply the conditions, review records and administer a procedure that combines the prospect of stability with more specific employment, medical and disciplinary controls than the previous system.
The permanent-employment bill is part of a five-item legislative package that also includes authority for Development Commissions to collect fees and the definitive transfer of Bustillo Avenue to Bariloche. The first decisive step is the session scheduled for Thursday the 6th; if the law is approved and regulated, Weretilneck expects the appointments to be completed in the latter part of the year.
