Event: Argentina

Argentina’s senate is poised to approve a sweeping overhaul of labour laws aimed at weakening trade unions and lowering labour costs for businesses.The government of the self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president, Javier Milei, says the initiative will help revive formal employment, after 290,600 registered jobs were lost between December 2023, when he took office, and November 2025.But opponents say the measure – which includes cuts to severance pay and extends the maximum working day from eight to 12 hours – would neither increase employment nor improve job quality.Informal employment is now at its highest level since 2008, affecting more than 43% of workers. The so-called “labour modernisation act” would overhaul longstanding labour legislation shaped by Peronism, the movement that brought Gen Juan Perón to power in 1946.“It is pro-business, pro-employment and pro-employee. It is anti-trade union and anti-labour lawyers,” said Francisco Paoltroni, a senator from Milei’s ruling party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA).Juan Manuel Ottaviano, a labour lawyer and academic, described the bill as “unconstitutional”. “It imposes severe limitations on individual rights in the workplace and weakens their protection through trade unions,” he said.After making gains in October’s midterm elections, Milei’s party secured congressional backing for the reform. The bill has already passed both houses and returns to the senate because of an amendment introduced in the lower chamber – the elimination of a widely repudiated article that reduced wages during sick leaves, even in cases when workers were suffering from life-threatening conditions.The legislation would allow companies to negotiate directly with employees, potentially overriding sector-wide collective agreements. In Argentina, unions typically represent workers nationwide within each industry, seeking to standardise wages and benefits across regions. The reform would also reduce dismissal costs by creating a severance fund partly financed by the state and by excluding bonuses from compensation calculations.It would eliminate specialised national…