Javier Milei’s boosters say law will revive employment, but critics decry cuts to severance and longer working hours
Argentina’s senate is poised to approve a sweeping overhaul of labour laws aimed at weakening trade unions and lowering labour costs for businesses.
The government of the self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president, Javier Milei, says the initiative will help revive formal employment, after 290,600 registered jobs were lost between December 2023, when he took office, and November 2025.
But opponents say the measure – which includes cuts to severance pay and extends the maximum working day from eight to 12 hours – would neither increase employment nor improve job quality.
Informal employment is now at its highest level since 2008, affecting more than 43% of workers. The so-called “labour modernisation act” would overhaul longstanding labour legislation shaped by Peronism, the movement that brought Gen Juan Perón to power in 1946.
