Telam: a decision in favor of the licensees

Labor Judge Ricardo Tatarsky ruled yesterday
the reinstatement of five of the 354 dismissed employees of the Telam public information agency, while it granted a precautionary measure promoted by the press unions.

The decision considers that, given the scale of the planned staff restructuring, the business should have started before the


Ministry of Labor
a crisis prevention procedure, provided for by the national employment law and also envisaged for state companies

Therefore, the judge establishes that the promoters of the precautionary measure must be reinstated "Immediately" until it is resolved. With the resolution would benefit, at least for the moment, the five petitioners – Matilde Suárez, Sebastián Siddi, Fazio Florencia Celeste, Alejandro Monclá and Carlos Nis, but a precedent is set for others of the licensee may submit a similar remedy individually.

The changes in Telam were announced at the end of last month by the head of the Federal System of Media and Public Content, Hernán Lombardi. Since then, a strike paralyzes the service of the state press agency and the two headquarters of the company are taken by a union protest, which demands the reinstatement of dismissed staff.

This week, in front of a legislative committee, Lombardi defended the decision to release Telam: "The layoffs are not a decontextualized phenomenon or a whimsical arbitrariness, they are the dismal but essential consequence of a structural problem of long date, "he said.

"The prejudicial and abusive use of resources is a scam for taxpayers," he added, before facing severe criticism of the opposition

The judge argued in its decision that Telam justified the dismissals "due to a so-called" general restructuring of the company "and that it should have resorted, before the dismissals, to the" crisis prevention procedure " provided for in national labor law. "This is the procedure that would inevitably have been followed before making a disruption decision of this magnitude."

This Act establishes the procedure of mandatory pre-emptive crisis "prior" to the communication dismissals when they become available for "reasons of force majeure, economic or technological causes" (according to the judge, this case comes under "economic causes") and a percentage of the company is affected, which in this case is 10% because it is a Tatarsky said: "The right of work has as a basis and a fundamental support the commitment to the real truth (.. .) so that the undersigned can not ignore that behind the alleged general restructuring a mbadive layoff of workers has been caused. "

Details of the decision

He also argued that "without prejudice to the organization and management powers enjoyed by the employer, the measure adopted by the defendant for alleged" general restructuring "went beyond any framework. reasonable character and was obviously inappropriate. " [19659009] The judge stated that the dismissals "would also be framed" in the law against discriminatory acts because, according to information provided by the plaintiffs, officials of the Telam agency have publicly stated that they " ideologically clean the workers of the "

Judge Tatarsky also recalled that the National Constitution enshrines the protection of workers against arbitrary dismissal and that the right to work is protected by international treaties incorporated in the Constitution.