Milei: Justice suspends labor reform decree – 01/03/2024 – Market

The Argentine Court suspended the labor reform that had been included by Javier Milei’s government in the mega-decree with deregulation measures for various sectors of the economy and which was sent by the government shortly after taking office.

The text of Milei’s DNU (Decree of Necessity and Urgency) has a chapter reserved for labor issues.

The Court decided to grant a precautionary measure requested by the CGT (General Confederation of Labor), the first brake imposed by the courts on DNU 70/2023, published by Milei on December 20.

The CGT filed the injunction on December 27, alleging the unconstitutionality of the section of the DNU that deals with labor issues, asking for a precautionary measure to prevent it from coming into force.

The first judge to receive the complaint refused to issue the injunction, claiming that the decree had not yet come into force, but asked Milei’s chief of staff, Nicolás Posse, to respond to the unionists’ demand. In the meantime, the CGT contacted the National Labor Chamber.

By two votes to one, the chamber did not wait for an official justification from the government to maintain the DNU.

The decision — taken on Tuesday (2) and published this Wednesday (3) — is signed by judges Andrea García Vior and José Alejandro Sudera. Judge María Dora González argued that the case should be referred to the Federal Administrative Litigation Appeals Chamber to decide which of the two forums was competent to continue the process — the litigation accumulates several cases against the DNU.

“It is well known that the workers’ segment is socially vulnerable and, in this case, rights of a food nature are at stake. There is no doubt that serious and objectively unpostponable circumstances arise that justify the issuance of the precautionary measure”, says an excerpt from the ruling published earlier by the Clarín newspaper.

Among the arguments presented to suspend the application of Milei’s labor reform via DNU, one of the judges questions the urgency of the measures.

“It is not clear how the proposed reforms, if applied immediately and outside the normal process of enacting laws, could remedy the situation regarding the generation of formal employment, especially when the decree itself recognizes that it has been stagnant for 12 years, which prevents , in principle, consider the emergence of some sudden, unpredictable or extremely ‘exceptional’ circumstance.”

Casa Rosada is expected to appeal the decision, according to the Argentine press.

Upon taking office, Milei said that the labor regime needed modernization to reduce bureaucracy and increase employment. In practice, the measures presented by the government facilitate layoffs and make this process less expensive.

One of the aspects of the DNU most questioned by the workers’ central concerns the increase in the probationary period for workers, from three to eight months, it also allows dismissal in the event of a lockout or the workplace, something that critics of the project see as a restriction the right to strike.

The document also reduces fines and charges to be paid by companies in the event of employee dismissal.

In the case of pregnancy, the pregnant woman is prevented from working 45 days before and after giving birth, but has the option of reducing the absence by up to ten days.

The government also wants to modify union collections, with measures such as exempting companies from withholding union contributions from employees and requiring authorization to deduct contributions.

On the 28th, the CGT called a general strike against Milei’s decree. According to the entity, which is historically linked to Peronism, the mobilization will take place on January 24th and is expected to last 12 hours.

On the 10th, a plenary session will decide the details of the demonstration in Buenos Aires, which should include a march towards Congress, starting at noon, and should test the limits of the anti-protest protocol of Public Security Minister Milei, Patricia Bullrich.

Milei’s package of 366 measures has been criticized for, according to opponents, giving excessive powers to the government. In addition to the DNU, the Executive sent the so-called “bus law” (as it passes through different sectors, from economics to politics) with a total of 664 articles.

In a year-end message to Argentines on the 30th, Milei appealed to the population to pressure Congress to approve its emergency measures, claiming that failure to approve it would lead the country to a “social catastrophe of biblical proportions.”

Last week, deputy Pablo Yedlin (from the Peronist opposition bloc União pela Pátria) said he hoped that Milei’s DNU would be revoked before the strike scheduled by the CGT.

“There is a clear vision that Congress must fulfill its mission and this president must be accountable to what the Constitution says,” said the parliamentarian for the province of Tucumán on AM750 radio.

Dante Sica, former Minister of Production and Labor in the Mauricio Macri government — who supported Milei in the second round in November — told the Argentine channel TN that the new government’s measures will discourage the “experimental labor industry” that leads to bankruptcy several small and medium-sized companies, responsible for 70% of private employment.