(Agencia CMA Latam) - Argentina's Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne said that the Mauricio Macri's administration would achieve a labor reform that "is going to be very important for Argentina," but noted that the reform recently carried out in Brazil is not a mirror for his country.
"All the reforms being promoted by the Ministry of Labor in talks with the unions need to respect the country's idiosyncrasies. And we will achieve a reform that will be very important for Argentina," said the official in statements to radio Metro.
When asked if the Argentinean reform would be similar to that carried out in the neighboring Brazil, the official noted that "every country has to respect its particularities and has to seek consensus, because the reforms that remain are those that were agreed upon."
In July, the Brazilian Congress passed a bill that allows direct agreements between employers and employees to prevail over labor law, eliminates mandatory contributions from workers to unions and establishes the so-called seasonal work - when employees are subordinate to one company in spite of irregular working hours.
However, the proposition also enables some controversial measures, which oblige pregnant women to work in conditions of medium or small insalubrity and authorize consecutive 12-hour workdays with 36 hours of rest, for example.
The Brazilian government says that the new legislation will 'modernize' labor rules and boost employment, but unions and judges from labor courts stated that the reform would remove workers' rights and create obstacles to fair decisions in legal disputes between employees and employers.
Meanwhile, Macri's administration and the General Confederation of Labor will soon launch discussions on a bill to bring workers out of the informal market, Dujovne said. The minister said that while the government does not have an estimate of how many people would be benefited, there is "room for progress" in Argentina, given that informality is estimated at almost 30% of the local labor market.
by Agencia CMA Latam
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