Overview
- Ruling senators moved toward partial approval after unveiling roughly 28 last‑minute changes, including scrapping a corporate tax cut opposed by provinces, with the bill’s fate in the lower house still uncertain within the extraordinary‑session window.
- The proposal creates an employer‑financed Labor Assistance Fund (1% for large firms, 2.5% for SMEs), limits severance calculations to regular monthly pay excluding bonuses and vacations, and allows severance to be paid in installments.
- Company‑level contracts would take precedence over sectoral agreements, ultraactivity is curtailed, and an expanded list of essential and high‑importance services would require minimum staffing levels, constraining strikes.
- After negotiations, the CGT kept a solidarity fee for two years capped at 2% and preserved the 6% employer contribution to union health funds, though it failed to block tighter strike limits in essential services.
- Large demonstrations in Buenos Aires and other cities coincided with the debate, and clashes outside Congress saw stones and Molotovs thrown as security forces used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons, with injuries and several detentions reported while the anti‑picket protocol was enforced by federal forces.