The Argentine justice system yesterday suspended the labor reform included in the decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) presented by President Javier Milei, after the appeal presented by the CGT union confederation. “Republican forms are not mere rhetoric, but are part of the very essence of the system,” says the ruling that stops title 4 of the decree of necessity and urgency. The DNU is a legal resource of the Argentine Executive that allows it, in exceptional moments, to make emergency decisions without the need for approval by the legislative branch.
The decision of the National Chamber of Labor was supported by judges José Alejandro Sudera and Andrea García Vior. A third vote, that of Judge Dora González, requested that the file be sent to the Contentious Appeals Chamber, as the prosecutor had requested on Tuesday.
One of the aspects of the DNU most questioned by the CGT provides for the extension of the trial period of employees to 8 months, the incorporation of blockades (worker concentrations) as a cause for dismissal and changes in the compensation system.
Among the arguments he uses to suspend the application of the labor reform promoted by Milei, Judge Sudera warns that the objective reasons for the approval of these labor measures are not perceived. He, too, does not see the reasons for “urgency” that would allow “the due intervention of the Legislative Branch to be avoided in regard to substantive legislation.”
Likewise, the magistrate does not understand how the proposed reforms, “if applied immediately and outside the normal process of enacting laws, could remedy the situation regarding the generation of formal employment, especially when the decree itself recognizes that “It has been stagnant for 12 years, which prevents – in principle – from considering the emergence of any sudden, unforeseeable or extremely ‘exceptional’ circumstance.”
The decision of the Argentine court represents a first judicial setback for Milei, which requires these special powers to apply legislation that represents a profound change to Argentine social laws. However, the court decision suspends only part of the decree. In the worst case scenario, justice could have overturned the entire decree.
Despite the victory obtained, the CGT, of Peronist inspiration, has not called off the strike day scheduled for next January 24, which will be a first test to gauge social resistance to Javier Milei’s policy, as well as the response of his government to street protests.
