MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Bad news” for Argentine industry: Fernández's emergency decree doubles compensation for 180 days

The decree, which bears the signature of the President and all ministers, formalizes the public emergency in occupational matters for 6 months.

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, established through a Decree of Necessity and Urgency the double compensation to workers for a period of 180 days in case of “dismissals without just cause” and “given the need to stop the worsening of the labor crisis “ The business sector receives it as ”bad news.”

“It is a measure that finally conspires against formal employment,” said Gustavo Weiss, a member of the Argentine Chamber of Construction. In this line different personalities of the business sector and economists have pronounced themselves like Gabriel Caamaño, who assured Infobae that this decree “was already discounted and in fact the companies advanced layoffs in preventive form anticipating this decision. It is a recurring measure.“

The decree, which bears the signature of the President and all ministers, formalizes the public emergency in occupational matters for 6 months. In other words, in the case of dismissals without just cause ”the affected workers will have the right to receive double the corresponding compensation in accordance with current legislation,“ the brand-new Fernández administration explained.

Mario Grinman, secretary of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce, explained that he understands the reasons, but ”without a doubt it is not good news.” “Our sector, the commerce, has been very punished in the last years, with a lot of closing of commerce. And we are the ones with the least layoffs,” Grinman said.

“We hope to enter a period of growth and greater production and that we do not need these defensive tools to take care of the work. We must point to a virtuous circle with the generation of quality employment,” said Miguel Acevedo, president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA).

The concern of this sector after the announcement of the decree generates suspicions about Fernández's economic policy for being counterproductive in the medium term, since for some businessmen such as José Urtubey, a spokesman of the UIA, before knowing the measure it was already thought that it would not be a useful tool before attempting to turn on the production.

“When he says goodbye it is with all the previous instances exhausted to avoid that unpleasant moment. It is hoped that it will be only for 180 days and that a normal path will begin to take place during that period,” Grinman added.