LLA opens door to reintroduce controversial sick leave reform

The government wants Congress to debate a bill including controversial modifications to current sick leave payments that was left out of the recently approved labor reform. The provision would aim to cut a percentage of the salary of workers who suffered an injury or got sick outside of the workplace. Although it was initially approved by the senate as part of the reform, opposition deputies demanded it be removed in order to back the bill. LLA senator Bartolomé Abdala said on Wednesday that a new bill dealing with this issue will be filed during the ordinary sessions period. The labor reform was approved during extraordinary sessions in February, while the legislative year will formally begin on March 1. The government’s position Abdala acknowledged that the original article did not differentiate between serious diseases and minor ones, which prompted the opposition — including ally sectors — to demand its removal. The original version of the labor reform said that employees who have an accident or get sick outside their work place — for example, an injury while playing a sport — would suffer sick pay cuts. Salary haircuts for non-risky activities would be 25%; in the case of risky ones, the cut would climb to 50% The senator, however, clarified that the government still considers there is a problem in how sick leave is handled. “For us, it is important [to end] the exaggerated, abusive sick leaves in the private and public sector,” Abdala told streaming Infobae En Vivo, claiming that some workers use “fake medical certificates” to ask for leave. He added that they aim to pass a law “that leaves everyone happy.” LLA senate bloc leader Patricia Bullrich had said, before the lower house debate, that it had been “a mistake” not to clarify that the sick leave pay cuts did not affect those with serious diseases. “Regarding severe, degenerative and incurable diseases, we will make a modification so 100% of the salary is paid, only in cases of specific and reliable confirmation,” Bullrich had said in an interview with TN news channel. This modification never happened in the end, as the article was completely removed from the reform.