In their ruling, the judges stated that, “although entry into a prison does not strip a man of the protection of the laws and the National Constitution”, those deprived of their liberty will see “their capacity for rights diminished.”The appellate judges also highlighted that, while prison work must be remunerated according to Law 24.660, that retribution “does not correspond directly to the inmate,” but is distributed according to current regulations.“Inmates are not comparable to free workers, as the latter voluntarily practice their trade and can freely dispose of their salary, while inmates do so under subordination and obedience to the State, which does not act as an employer,” they pointed out.Finally, the judges of the Court, Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, rejected the appeal filed by the SUTPLA as inadmissible, leaving the judicial decision that denied its registration as a union firm.The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ratified the rejection of the guild registration of the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Privados de la Libertad Ambulatoria (SUTPLA), an organization created at the University Center of the Devoto prison with the aim of defending the labor rights of inmates who work during the fulfillment of their sentences.The court left standing a ruling by the National Chamber of Appeals of Labor, Chamber VIII, which had dismissed the SUTPLA's lawsuit by considering that inmates cannot be considered “workers” under the terms of Decree 467/88, and therefore do not have the right to form a union association under Law 23.551.The union initiative had been presented in 2016 to the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security of the Nation to request the registration of its legal personality, as reported by the Argentine News Agency.The entity argued that it represented all inmates who perform tasks or services in federal or provincial penitentiary establishments, in accordance with Law 24.660 and the General Regulations for Defendants, and accompanied the request with its statute and a list of members.The Ministry of Labor rejected the registration by stating that inmates “did not have the status of workers” and the organization appealed the decision. In 2023, the National Chamber of Appeals of Labor confirmed the ministerial criterion.
