Federal court temporarily suspends most of Mileis labor reform

A federal labor court suspended several articles of the government-backed labor reform that Congress passed last month. The government already announced it would appeal the legal measure. In March, the country’s main trade union organization, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), filed an injunction against the national government to declare 82 articles of the reform as unconstitutional. On Monday, the 63rd national labor court of first instance temporarily enforced the CGT’s request. The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the merits of the case are resolved. “This is very good news for the world of work. This injunction brings a greater sense of peace of mind to workers in Argentina,” said Cristian Jerónimo, one of the three leaders of the CGT, in an interview with Infobae. The reform overhauled the longstanding laws governing labor relations in Argentina, which Peronism had shaped since the 1940s. Among the modifications, the reform reduces the power of unions, cuts severance pay, and extends the maximum working day from 8 to 12 hours. The court’s ruling included the suspension of an article that limited the right to strike of several sectors — including telecommunications, hospitals, waste collection, education, aviation, and port workers — which were considered essential, meaning they have to guarantee at least a 75% operation at all times. It also suspended an extension to trial periods in jobs and the elimination of a legal principle that allowed collective bargaining agreements to remain in force after they had expired. Criticisms of the reform The CGT had said that the application of the reform would cause a “serious violation of fundamental constitutional rights, such as the rights to protection, progressive development, reasonableness, effective judicial protection, non-discrimination, freedom of association, the right to a defense in court, and the right to due process.” The organization also said that the reform establishes “permanent and detrimental changes to the individual and collective rights of workers and their labor unions within the specific legal frameworks that, until their enactment, guaranteed the principle of protection and freedom of association.” The national government had rejected the injunction, arguing that the CGT does not directly and immediately represent individual workers. However, the court judge Raúl Horacio Ojeda did not agree. In the ruling, he said that the three basic requirements for the legal action were met — current uncertainty regarding a specific legal relationship, potential immediate harm or injury to those represented by the plaintiff, and the absence of any other suitable legal means to establish legal certainty more promptly. The Human Capital Ministry announced in a statement that it would appeal the ruling. “The Ministry reaffirms its firm commitment to defending this law, which was passed by a large majority in the National Congress and conceived as a fundamental tool for creating formal employment, improving competitiveness, and strengthening legal certainty for workers and employers,” the communiqué said. A source in the Treasury’s Prosecution Office, in charge of the government’s legal strategy, told the Herald that the administration would “keep fighting to the bitter end to ensure that the law is enforced to the fullest extent.”