Argentina’s Congress approved the Labour Modernisation Act on February 27, a set of sweeping anti-worker attacks backed by far-right president, Javier Milei. The reforms are an assault on workers’ rights, trade unions and democracy, eliminating gains made by workers over decades of struggle.
The laws extend the working day from 8 to 12 hours, eliminate paid overtime — replacing it with a “time bank” system where employers decide when accumulated hours can be taken as time off or reduced shifts — and allow for zero-hour contracts.
The introduction of “dynamic wages” allows salaries to fluctuate from month to month, based on agreements made between workers and employers, or unilaterally by employers.
The Act categorises app-based workers — such as transport and delivery drivers — as “independent providers”, denied key rights such as minimum wages, roster limits, insurance and the right to unionise.
Employers can now force workers to split their annual leave into seven-day periods, instead of the previous minimum of 14 consecutive days.
The Act eliminates labour statutes that, for example, protect media workers around freedom of speech and censorship.
The reforms significantly reduce redundancy pay, encourage mass sackings and “fire-and-rehire” practices under worse conditions.
The Act sets up a so-called Employment Assistance Fund to pay out sacked workers, funded by reducing mandatory employer contributions to workers’ pension funds.
The laws seek to severely undermine trade unions and workers’ ability to resist. Argentina has a historically strong trade union base, with the second-highest average unionisation rate (about 40% of formal workers) in Latin America.
Unions traditionally represent all workers across any given sector, seeking to standardise rights and benefits across the country. Now, company-based bargaining agreements will take precedence over sector-wide agreements.
Unions will require permission from bosses to hold workplace mass meetings, and participants will be docked hours.
The right to strike, and its effectiveness, is now severely limited. In industries declared “essential”, such as telecommunications, education, aviation and waste collection, workers will be forced by law to guarantee 75% of normal service during a strike. This is in violation of international labour standards set by the International Labour Organisation, which were previously ratified by Argentina.
Milei falsely claims that the laws will reduce informal work — which accounts for about half of the workforce — and raise employment. However, many expect the reforms will lead to a rise in informal work, with formal workers forced out of their workplaces or needing to work informally to make ends meet.
A report by the national statistics institute found that 80% of companies have no plans to hire employees in the next three months and 15% are actually planning to sack workers.
The new laws particularly affect women, who make up the majority of workers in the informal sector, especially in the most precarious, low-income jobs. The gender pay gap in the formal sector is 29.5%, but rises to 38% in the informal sector.
The laws aim to reduce labour costs, helping companies boost profits, while simultaneously dismantling the ability of unions and workers to resist.
Milei has followed International Monetary Fund loan conditions to the letter, implementing a neoliberal assault and program of massive public wealth transfer to private interests.
He has overseen mass sackings of public sector workers and the loss of about 300,000 jobs between taking office in December 2023 and November last year. Cuts to public spending reduced the purchasing power of pensions by 23% in his first year and reduced public sector wages by 22%.
At the same time, Milei is opening up the country’s resources for foreign multinationals to exploit, particularly in the agribusiness and mining sectors. Milei’s modification to the country’s law protecting glaciers, to allow mining, threatens critical water supplies and entire ecosystems.
The United States government and the corporations it represents are seeking to benefit from the favourable terms provided by its self-described “unconditional ally”. The two governments have signed several agreements facilitating US access to critical minerals, such as copper, lithium and uranium.
Despite declining popularity and soaring poverty, Milei’s La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) party won the mid-term parliamentary elections by a comfortable majority last October. US President Donald Trump arguably influenced the result by promising beforehand US$40 billion worth of financing to Argentina if Milei’s party won.
In the weeks leading up to the anti-worker laws being passed, people took to the streets in protest.
While the laws were being debated in the lower house of Congress on February 11, workers, students and pensioners mobilised across the country in protest. Police brutally repressed the protest in the capital, Buenos Aires, with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, and arrested at least 71 people.
Workers began a 24-hour strike against the reforms on February 19, which paralysed much of the education, aviation, transport and non-emergency health sectors. Jorge Sola, secretary-general of the General Confederation of Labour, said there was 90% adherence to the general strike, the fourth since Milei took office in December 2023.