The Argentine Senate approved in the early hours of this Thursday the labor reform project proposed by the president, which radically modifies working conditions in this country, characterized by a high level of unionization and a long history of workers’ struggle.
After a session of more than 14 hours and a tense day due to the pitched battle waged in the center of Buenos Aires by the security forces and protesters opposed to this reform, the Upper House approved the project.
The Secretary General of the Presidency and sister of the Argentine president, and the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Manuel Adorni, (both people of maximum confidence to the president), attended the vote from a box in the Senate. “Historical, VLLC” (long live fucking freedom), Milei posted on the social network X immediately after the vote.
Now the senators need to carry out the individual vote, that is, vote separately on each of the 26 chapters that make up the project and this could modify aspects of the text. It will then go to the Lower House with the modifications that arise along the way.
The deadlines
The Government wants the law to have overcome all legislative obstacles before March 1, when the ordinary period of Congress begins and Milei will offer a speech to the nation. Debate and voting on this bill is currently taking place in special sessions.
The passage through the Senate is the first achievement of Libertad Avanza (LLA, Milei’s party) in Congress this 2026 and responds to , when the far-right formation significantly increased its representation in both chambers of Congress.
With the support of the Radical Civic Union (UCR, center-right), Republican Proposal (PRO, right) – under the leadership of the former president (2015-2019) – and the federal blocks, LLA managed to get 38 senators to enable the quorum to start the session held this Wednesday.
The project reached the Upper House after numerous modifications to the text agreed upon until the last minute and negotiations between the Government and the provincial governors, whose parliamentary representatives expressed themselves in favor of the measure.
During the afternoon of Wednesday, while the labor reform was being debated in the Senate, the Plaza del Congreso in Buenos Aires and the surrounding streets were the scene of a pitched battle between protesters opposed to the labor reform and the security forces, with the result of several injuries and arrests.
Argentine President Javier Milei salutes after finishing, together with his sister Karina, his speech at a rally for the midterm elections, on October 23, 2025, in Rosario.
The content
The controversy is great, as are the changes contemplated in the project. They are the following:
- The reduction of layoffs, the possibility of extending the working day up to 12 hours a day and the alleviation of the burdens on companies with the reduction of contributions and the creation of a fund to finance compensation for dismissal at the expense of the retirement system.
“The FAL (labor assistance fund) is a scandal,” denounced Peronist senator Mariano Recalde during his speech in the debate. It is a mandatory capitalization system that companies will finance with contributions of between 1% and 2.5% – depending on their size – of the salaries that until now they allocated to the National Social Security Agency (Anses). “The workers lose because the dismissal is subsidized, it is easier to fire and the Anses and the retirees lose because it is defunded, the money goes to these private administrators who are going to scam it and it is not going to be used to pay retirements and pensions as until now,” continued Recalde. According to official estimates, this fund could inject close to $4 billion annually into the local capital market.
- The labor reform also opens the door for companies to stop paying overtime with a bonus and compensate them with days off or reduced working hours. Vacations, which until now had to be granted in summer, may be divided throughout the year. Salaries may be paid in any currency, species, food or accommodation.
- The project includes measures that weaken the power of unions and their protest tools. One of them is that it prioritizes agreements within each company over national collective agreements by branch of activity. It establishes that these agreements, key to salary negotiations in a country with high inflation (in 2025 it was 31.5%), will cease to be in force if there is no agreement to renew them.
- In case of rejection of government policies, unions will find it difficult to resort to strike because minimum services of 75% must be guaranteed for those services considered essential (health, education, transportation, energy and water) and 50% for essential sectors such as banks, mining, industry and electronic commerce.
- The Executive made numerous concessions to guarantee the support of the opposition for the project. The provincial governors managed to exclude a reduction in the Income Tax that would have meant a reduction of 3 billion pesos (more than 2,000 million dollars) for the state coffers in funds that are co-shareable, that is, they are distributed among the 24 federal districts of the country.
- The banks managed to prevent salaries from being credited into virtual wallets and the unions maintained the contributions made by workers and companies to the social works with which they offer health services.
The call for unions to mobilize in rejection of the labor reform had an important echo in the main cities of the country. In Buenos Aires, thousands of people gathered in front of the Argentine Congress with slogans against the Milei Government and against the job insecurity of a country in which 38% of the population is poor.
The protest was peaceful for hours, he says but after five in the afternoon, a group of protesters began to throw stones and Molotov cocktails at the police officers who were on the other side of the security fences and they responded with tear gas, water jets and rubber bullets.
First aid teams treated dozens of people for injuries of varying degrees caused by police repression and the Ministry of Security reported four injured police officers.
About thirty protesters were arrested for the riots. The fate of the labor reform is now in the hands of the Chamber of Deputies. The Kirchnerist opposition has anticipated that, if approved, they will take it to court for considering it unconstitutional.
