A new judicial front has opened for the reform promoted by the Government after Judge Hernán Mendel, in charge of the National Court of Labor No. 30, ordered the total suspension of the effects of the agreement on the transfer of judicial functions in labor matters from the national orbit to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The ruling, issued in response to a lawsuit by the Union of Judicial Employees of the Nation, blocked one of the most sensitive points of the ruling party's labor redesign and once again placed tension between the reform, the labor foro, and the judicial union framework. In his ruling, Mendel ordered the "suspension of the total effects" of the agreement incorporated as an annex to Law 27.802 until there is a final sentence on the merits of the case. He also left open a more delicate discussion about the web of relationships between judges, judicial associations, and sector unions. There are public precedents linking Mendel to the union and corporate life of the judicial world. The union's lawsuit also focused on the concrete impact of the reform on the structure of the labor foro. The fact that a case of such sensitivity fell to a magistrate with a history of union representation within the same judicial ecosystem fueled questions about the mechanism for assigning the case and the need to review how high-impact institutional processes are allocated. In these political circumstances, the origin data of the presiding judge has already become part of the debate on the legitimacy of the measure and the need to dispel any suspicion of bias. Undoubtedly, Judge Mendel should have recused himself. In this context, the ruling was exposed to additional scrutiny. Years later, public records also placed him in leadership positions at the Association of Magistrates and Officials of the National Judiciary. A 1998 document from the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation granted him union leave without pay for being part of the directive board of the then Union of Employees of the National Judiciary, in the same act in which Julio Piumato was also benefited. According to the UEJN's argument, Article 91 of the new law provides for the progressive dissolution of 30 courts and one chamber within a period of 180 days, which raised alarms about the stability of some 1,600 employees.
