The Chamber of Deputies of Argentina approved this Thursday the labor reform promoted by the Government of President Javier Milei on a day marked by the general strike called by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) against a text that has finally been approved with the support of the ruling party and its allies.
With 135 votes in favor and 115 against, the Lower House has thus given the green light to the text with the support of Propuesta Republicana (Pro), Unión Cívica Radical (UCR), Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo (MID), the legislators of Misiones and Salta that make up Federal Innovation, as well as the blocks of Santa Cruz, San Juan, Elijo Catamarca and Independencia.
After the conclusion of the vote, the allies of the Executive began a standing ovation that was replicated from the main box of the chamber, where the Secretary General of the Presidency, Karina Milei, was present for the occasion; the Chief of Staff, Manuel Adorni, and the Minister of the Interior, Diego Santilli.
From the reduction of dismissal to a bank of hours to avoid paying overtime: how much of a chainsaw is there in the law?
The project, of more than 200 articles, proposes a reduction in the calculation of severance pay, enables the splitting of vacations and creates a bank of hours as an alternative to paying overtime. In addition, the extension of the daily working day from 8 to 12 hours is permitted as long as the 12-hour rest period between work days is respected.
Likewise, it dissolves the National Labor Justice, limits the right to strike and establishes a new scheme for collective negotiations that prioritizes company or regional agreements over sectoral ones.
However, one of the most controversial articles – which proposed reducing salaries during medical leave – has had to be eliminated, forcing the Senate to re-receive the text that it already approved a week ago.
While the parliamentary sanction is being completed, the president of the Senate, Patricia Bullrich, has convened the Labor and Budget committees for this Friday morning in order to speed up the deadlines and be able to ratify the reform next Friday the 27th, so that the president, Javier Milei, can inaugurate the ordinary sessions of Congress on March 1 showing the approval of the norm.
The opposition, which has shown its disagreement with the law, particularly the Unión por la Patria party, which has described the project as an “anti-labor reform” and has branded the deputies from Catamarca, Tucumán and Salta – all of them Peronists – as “traitors” for supporting the initiative.
However, this same group, together with a sector of the United Provinces and the left, have warned that, far from modernizing working conditions, the labor reform will curtail already acquired rights of workers in favor of employers. Furthermore, they have described the text as unconstitutional, predicting that the “reform will be judicialized.”
The Casa Rosada celebrates what it calls “labor modernization law”
The Presidency, for its part, has celebrated through a statement the so-called “Labor Modernization Law”, which it has highlighted that “it means creation of registered work, less informality, labor standards adapted to the 21st century, less bureaucracy, greater dynamism in labor relations and, most important of all, the end of the trial industry.”
Likewise, he stressed that the text “establishes clear rules for both workers and employers” and incorporates “concrete incentives for the formalization of employment, mechanisms that reduce judicial conflict and a special focus on small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).”
“With this reform, an environment is promoted that facilitates hiring, promotes investment and allows registered employment to expand again,” highlighted Milei’s office, which thanked the deputies and senators and recognized that “Argentines have made an enormous effort to achieve macroeconomic, monetary and fiscal stability.”
