MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

No layoffs until March 2017 in Argentina

Mario Quintana and Jorge Triaca address the press after reaching agreement with businessmen and union leaders

The Argentine government reached an agreement Wednesday with businessmen and CGT union leaders that there will be no layoffs until March 2017, to give workers reassurances that that there is a commitment to create new jobs and to preserve the existing ones.

 Government, businessmen and CGT union leaders signed an agreement to avoid layoffs in the country until March 2017, a high ranking official from the Mauricio Macri administration announced at the Casa Rosada. The government also vowed to “revise” collective labor agreements in search for “obstacles” that “ hinder productivity and the creation of jobs,” Coordination Secretary Mario Quintana told the media.

“We will have to review if there are any elements of these agreements that are holding back or not this achievement of generating more workplaces,” said Quintana, who alongside Labor Minister Jorge Triaca acted as spokesmen at a post-meeting conference, although most cabinet members had sat at the table. Representatives of the other two signing parties were not available for comments.

Triaca said that in the “last four months” a positive trend in employment generation could be noticed and foresaw a more consolidated next year under the government's policy to “listen to all those involved.

Quintana admitted that some trade unionists raised the issue of collective bargaining agreements at the meeting although it was not on the agenda. ”We want to put the creation of quality jobs and employment as an essential objective in the fight against poverty and we want to do it by defending real wages, for which, as per our instructions from the President, we have to follow the productivity star,“ which, in other words, meant that ”it will be necessary to review if there are some elements of these agreements that are holding back or not this achievement of generating more employment.”