Sebastian Fest Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Updated Tuesday, January 30, 2024-21:27

  • Argentina Justice stops labor reform by decree, Milei's first serious setback in the presidency

  • Argentina The Government of Javier Milei lightens the 'omnibus law' to seek its approval in Congress

The government of Javier Milei suffered a serious setback this Tuesday before the Court, which annulled as "unconstitutional" the entire chapter of the labor reform launched in December through a Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU).

The issue is one of "essential specific debate and decision by the Legislative Branch," said the appeals court of the National Chamber of Labor. The Argentine government plans

to insist and appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice,

although for practical purposes the labor reform is not valid.

The judicial presentation had been made by the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the main Argentine trade union center with a clearly Peronist affiliation. The labor court had already agreed in the first instance on January 3 with the CGT, which saw

its position ratified

in the second instance involving the Chamber.

The appeal court points out that there was no "impediment" for Congress to meet in December, when Milei signed the DNU, so

the requirements of necessity and urgency are not proven.

"Prior to the date of entry into force of DNU 70/2023, the legislative body was convened, in office, and with powers to examine the content of the reforms promoted in said DNU," noted the three judges of the Chamber in a unanimous ruling.

The labor reform aims to

reduce the power of unions,

a true corporation that conditions all governments, as well as compensation and certain labor rights to, according to the government, promote productive activity.

The ultra-liberal Milei, who took office on December 10 after four years of Peronist

Alberto Fernández

in the Casa Rosada, is having

two obstacles of a different nature in the first stages of his government.

The CGT brings together the discontent of essentially Peronist and left-wing sectors due to the strong devaluation of the peso and the very high inflation. On the 24th of this month he launched a

general strike,

just 44 days after the new government took office. In the four years of Fernández's government, the CGT did not carry out any general strike.

The other brake that Milei finds is in the non-Peronist, fragmented opposition, which showed itself to be a skillful negotiator to put limits in Congress on the "Omnibus Law", presented a week after the DNU.

On December 20, Milei signed a DNU that includes

366 measures over more than 80 pages.

The DNU "is advancing against some of the most powerful lobbies in Argentina, which cannot help but be astonished at the still indecipherable impact of so many measures in such dissimilar sectors," La Nación noted at the time.

The

measures

include the repeal of price controls in the Argentine economy, the flexibility of the labor regime, the opening to the privatization of public companies and the repeal of the rent law, which are already being agreed in pesos, dollars, euros or any currency you want.

A week later, MIlei sent Congress a mega bill that aims to

turn the country into the most liberal nation in Latin America,

grants superpowers to the head of state and opts for a strong hand in security issues.

The project, called "Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines", consists of 664 articles spread over 351 pages. The pompous name plays with the "Bases and starting points for the organization of the Argentine Republic" that the liberal

Juan Bautista Alberdi

wrote in the first half of the 19th century, and which served as the ideological substrate for the National Constitution of 1853/1860, renovated in 1994.


Guillermo Francos,

the Minister of the Interior, went in person to Congress to present the president of the Chamber of Deputies,

Martín Menem,

with the voluminous project, kept in a wooden box with the national colors.

The question at that time was

whether Milei really intended to implement everything he proposed

or simply went further than imaginable to negotiate. We must not forget that it has 38 deputies out of 257 and seven senators out of 72.

The passing of the weeks made it clear that the concept of "Mamuschka law" or "Russian doll" is real:

the Milei government included so many issues, and so dissimilar in their importance and urgency, that in the negotiations it was ceding chapters of the law, although preserving the core.

The last concession was to withdraw the entire chapter referring to tax and fiscal reform, in addition to reducing the temporal scope of the super powers.

The Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to begin the debate on the "Omnibus Law" this Wednesday, in a session that promises to be marathon.