This is the reform of the workforce proposed by Alberto Fernández

The discussion on the working model resurfaced strongly on the eve of the elections. Driven by the government but also by the opposition, part of the agenda has focused in recent days on the future of work, labor laws and policies to create new jobs. jobs.

These issues are controversial in the context of an economy still in recession and with inflation, which has degraded employment and real wages, and especially in the face of a hyper-polarized campaign in which candidates are increasingly taking their jobs. positions to win the vote of the Undecided.

But not all proposals have fallen into the trap. In addition to defending the payment of debt with the IMF, Macri and Alberto Fernández share an interest in reformulating labor agreements, one of the main criticisms of the corporate sector.

Although the Fernández team rejects the labor reform driven by the local government, it proposes to redefine the organization of work and technology in agreements, among other sensitive points for the unions, now largely aligned with the Peronist candidate.

"Many aspects still need to be updated, the proposal is to give a thorough discussion leaving the rights and guarantees established in the agreements unchanged," he explained. Professional Diego Schleser, director of the San Martín University Study Center (Cetyd) and member of the technical team headed by former Minister of Labor Carlos Tomada, who last month presented an "urgent" program measures in the field of work.

He did it with the banking syndicalist Sergio Palazzo; Hugo Yasky, head of the Argentine CTA, and Marcó del Pont, former head of the Central Bank. And in the preparation of proposals, former senior management and researchers from centers of studies close to Kirchnerism such as Athena, Cetyd and Cifra, as well as the ITE Germán Institute Abdala and the Public Policy Observatory (Opepp) participated.

Taken is one of the names that seem to ring at this time to occupy the job portfolio in a possible Fernández government. A fluid dialogue with the presidential candidate, the legislator of Buenos Aires went in July on his behalf to a summit of Latin American leaders in Mexico, alongside Jorge Taiana and Felipe Solá. And, although for 12 years, he negotiated with guilds and companies of the government of Eduardo Duhalde, Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, he had already warned that he was ready to resume his duties. He asked him for it.

His plan in this case envisions a new system of peers with the agreement of "indicative" guidelines on wages and prices, changes in legislation to regulate digital platforms and outsourcing, as well as the development of new regulations. a new system of contributions from the employer. with an increase in charges for large companies and a decrease for smaller ones; as well as a law on parental leave and the repeal of pension reform in order to establish a new retirement discount rate.

The diagnosis is that employment has been accelerated by global changes, including a decline in the distribution of income and working conditions in recent decades due to new forms of production. And in recent years, by the policy of Cambiemos, whose effects on the labor market were "devastating", according to the document also sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of German Social Democracy.

In this context, they consider that the agreements have been partly renewed since 1975 because of the unions' defensive stance in the face of an "offensive" that creates rights, which made it difficult to integrate the changes in the labor market processes. production. According to the technicians, this can be "detrimental" for the workers, because being supervised by tasks other than those performed would increase the discretion of the companies to define the organization of the work.

"The aim is to generate greater correspondence between the regulations they stipulate (the agreements) and the new forms of productive organization in which the tasks are actually performed, without affecting the rights and guarantees of the workers" , says the document. Prepared by the team Tomada.

The axes proposed for discussion are the trades, tasks, functions and new categories; gender equality and vocational training; as well as worker participation in earnings; health and safety, and psychosocial risks at work; as well as the introduction and management of technology and work organization.

The last two points are particularly sensitive, as they were at the center of the recent battle between the bank director and Mercado Libre general manager Marcos Galperin for the composition of Mercado Pago employees, the financial leg of the platform. This week, he turned 20 and leads the Wall Street technology stocks. In recent days, there were signs of approach.

Palazzo suggested the possibility of creating a new agreement Thursday and Friday of last week at the 13th meeting of bank employees, attended by Cristina Kirchner. "We need to discuss technological progress, if we have to conclude a special agreement, we have to do it, we are open-minded, but on firm terms," ​​said the bank, saying that, just as the centers do, Calls, "sooner or later" this sector will eventually regularize ".

The other boss facing Galperin is the truck driver Hugo Moyano, created by the logistics employees, which the businessman finally defined in the agreement signed in December with the Union of Loading Workers and unloading. The agreement is similar to Macri's reform: shuffle the day's work by setting a limit of 192 hours a month and six days a week, with fixed or alternating schedules; eliminates overtime and replaces them with a bank of hours, and allows versatility, with no limit of tasks.

Unicorns, Dead Cow and Elections

The working model inaugurated by the main unicorn of Argentina is questioned within the team Tomada, which considers that the agreement of loading and unloading "is a total flexibility of the tasks and the day of work" . "If this is the job of the future, it is incredible that this work has a working day governed by the laws of 1929, while the agreements in force provide for a day limited to 170 hours with overtime," Schleser warned. .

On the other hand, the addendum signed by the oil companies Vaca Muerta in 2017 also arouses criticism in the vicinity of Alberto Fernández. Although Councilor Guillermo Nielsen and the candidate for the governorship of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, see in the site an engine of growth, the group Callao and the technicians of the former Minister of Labor warn that the signature of this agreement has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of deaths. injured workers due to deteriorating working conditions and safety.

The government decided to move forward in a sectoral strategy through the revision of the agreements against the resistance it was encountering in the hard unions and the Peronism in the Senate to amend the labor legislation. For these hours, however, Macri is looking to forcefully resume the laundering of work, the reduction of allowances and a new system of internships in case of victory in elections, whose first fight will be this Sunday's STEP.

As he could say ProfessionalVice President Miguel Pichetto badured CAME this week that he had already received a nod from the governors to move in this direction, even those close to Fernández, such as Gildo Insfrán Formoseño. The success of the official plan lies in a possible implosion of the Fernández-Fernández formula, behind which is now locked the hard syndicalism led by Palazzo and the truck driver Hugo Moyano as well as by the main guilds of the CGT.

In case of defeat of the opposition, macrismo bets to definitively neutralize the Peronist syndicalism, which during the direction proceeded to five general strikes, and to obtain the support of the legislators of the Front of All related to Sergio Mbada and Diego Bossio, as well as Roberto Lavagna and Juan Manuel Urtubey space. A good part of the dialogueist Peronism which, in December 2017, authorized the sanction of the law on the mobility of the retirement, after the victory of the party in power in the legislative elections.

The play, however, triggered the biggest political crisis in Cambiemos' management, provoked by protests in Congress to reject the first reform of the pension system. And he forced the government to change tactics with the fragmentation of labor reform in several projects and parallel progress in sector reforms through agreements, as it happened in the sectors. dairy products, automotive and metallurgy in Tierra del Fuego.

In recent days, employers have complained again that contracts have not been updated since 1975, even though in the 1990s many activities eased working conditions in terms of contract, salary and tasks, according to the book "Work and collective bargaining". Conicet researcher Clara Marticorena says that between 2003 and 2015, wage-focused agreements have increased, so that many agreements – especially companies – have maintained the productivity clauses of the 1990s.

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