What's behind the dispute between Palazzo and Mercad …

The finance and technology industry Fintech, which offers its services via digital platforms, continues to be controversial. A few weeks ago, a dispute that took months with the banks because of tax problems and regulations was brought to light. In recent days, another front of debate has emerged: the demand for supervision of workers in the banking sector. There were cross-declarations of union representatives of the bank, such as Sergio Palazzo (from the banking sector), and representatives of the fintech industry, such as Marcos Galperín (from the Mercado Libre). The first mentioned the fact that the sector is taking advantage of deregulation to ease working conditions. The businessman said it was extortion and threatened to transfer his branch to Uruguay.
"What I'm saying is that the Fintech workers need to be mentored in the relationship of the bank employees.This would represent a higher salary and better working conditions.So they provide financial services , they must be part of La Bancaria and our collective agreement, "said Palazzo.The union is one of the few to have managed to maintain the purchasing power of workers in recent years and n & rsquo; Did not waive the clauses of the agreement. The first category of guild employees, including the call center, earns 51,318 pesos.
Technology companies such as Mercado Libre, which began this year to exponentially increase Mercado Pago's demand for transfers and savings, reject the unionization of its employees and ensure that the low flexibility of the labor force in Argentina is a problem for business and innovation. . The businessman, last year, had been explicit about his idea of ​​salary for his employees. "If it bothers that the increase is 5%, the Mercado Libre is not for you," he said in August 2018, during an internal interview with the company, which has finally run away from the press.
Galperín is one of the largest companies in Latin America and has a stock market valuation of 30 billion dollars. The discussions about the wages and working conditions of their employees are shocking with the fortune of the company. He was not the only Fintech referent to aim to avoid unionization of staff. "The declarations of the banking union were unfortunate: we express our deep refusal to resort to confrontation, intimidation and arrogance to supervise workers illegally and without respecting the regulations in force. activities not covered by the framework of the banking union, "they told the Fintech chamber.
The tension between technology companies that offer financial services via digital platforms and the guild that brings together banking companies will be difficult to resolve. Fintech intends to work in a system of absolute deregulation of work and regulations that take advantage of the fact that technology is at the heart of their activities. The bank rightly claims that employees who perform almost identical tasks in a bank and a fintech have similar working conditions.
Politics entered the debate and President Macri made favorable statements to the businessmen. "This Mr. Palazzo is also a prepotent, he wants to put in place a system that improves people's lives through technology.Because today, in these new digital platforms, some people can put their money, their interests daily and electronic payment, we will all pay in electronic form, "he said. The statements are incorrect and disrespectful of the worker's working conditions. In particular, given the benefits that Mercado Libre has enjoyed over the years and the lack of successful public initiatives to get the public sector to lead the digital transformation of financial services to the people.