MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine court reinstates full force of Milei's labor reform

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a per saltum appeal filed by the national government seeking to fast-track a definitive ruling

An Argentine court on Friday lifted the precautionary injunction that had suspended 82 of the 218 articles of the labor reform pushed by President Javier Milei, restoring the full force of one of the most contested laws in the libertarian program.

The ruling, issued by Federal Administrative Court No. 12 under Judge Macarena Marra Giménez, overturned the injunction handed down on 30 March by a labor court at the request of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the country's largest union federation. The judge held that “the harm to the rights or guarantees invoked in the complaint does not arise clearly and unequivocally,” given the breadth of issues addressed by the law, and warned that maintaining the suspension would mean “advancing an opinion” on the substance of the union's constitutional challenge.

The so-called Labor Modernization Law, passed by Congress in February following a general strike and large-scale demonstrations led by the CGT, restricts the right to strike, limits union assemblies, reduces redundancy payouts, authorizes shifts of up to twelve hours under certain conditions, and reclassifies platform workers. The union federation has argued the changes are regressive and violate constitutional principles such as freedom of association and labor progressivity.

The judicial battle of recent weeks centered on jurisdiction. The Executive challenged the case being heard by labor courts and filed a motion to transfer it to the federal administrative jurisdiction, arguing the dispute concerned the validity of a national law. On 10 April, Marra Giménez declared herself competent; on 23 April, the National Labor Appeals Chamber annulled the injunction; and days later, the Federal Administrative Appeals Chamber confirmed her jurisdiction, settling the conflict between the two judicial branches.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a per saltum appeal filed by the national government seeking to fast-track a definitive ruling. According to the Attorney General's Office, the rejection was procedural: the appeal had been filed before the appeals chamber resolved the jurisdictional question, while the injunction remained in force.

The government welcomed the ruling and said in a statement that implementation of the law “is a fundamental tool for the creation of formal employment, improved competitiveness, and the strengthening of legal certainty for workers and employers.” The CGT's constitutional challenge remains open and must still be decided on the merits. The labor court has already referred nearly twenty related cases and incidents to Marra Giménez's docket.