The Argentine Senate comfortably passed the labor reform bill with a majority built by the ruling party and allied sectors, following a day of protests near the Congress. The vote reflected a significant victory for the government, in line with previous estimates: 42 in favor, 28 against, and two abstentions (Natalia Gadano and José Carambia). The head of the La Libertad Avanza Senate bloc, Patricia Bullrich, who played a key role in negotiations to reach consensus with dialogue-oriented sectors, was euphoric after the result and drew all eyes. At the end of the session, the former Security Minister rallied her troops and gathered the rest of the libertarian senators for a photo to capture the moment of pure jubilee, which becomes a milestone in Javier Milei's administration. This way, the upper chamber validated the modifications made in the Chamber of Deputies that eliminated the controversial Article 44, which proposed reducing the salary by up to 50% for people on leave for accidents or serious illnesses. The approved law included articles criticized by the opposition, such as those regulating compensations and the Labor Assistance Fund, the elimination of the ultra-activity of collective agreements, the restriction of union protections, the limitation of the right to strike, the repeal of professional statutes, and the defunding of INCAA. The Debate The national senator for Chaco from La Libertad Avanza, Juan Cruz Godoy, defended the government's labor reform by stating that 'this law is the product of a profound democratic process of debate and negotiation'. As the rapporteur for the majority's report, the libertarian highlighted that the norm introduces 'definitions of salary and its benefits to avoid the high litigation that our country has'. 'The Labor Assistance Fund is created as a tool to provide certainty to employers and employees in case of possible dismissals,' he pointed out. 'We recognize that in our country more than 70% of employment is thanks to SMEs, which is why the RIMI (Incentive Regime for Medium-sized Investments) is important,' indicated Godoy. The Chaco man recalled that 'with the RIGI (Incentive Regime for Large Investments) a first step was taken, but considering the capacity of SMEs as generators of employment, we believe it is important to give incentives to these companies to generate more investment and more employment'. He also emphasized that the law contains the 'elimination of internal taxes' and 'a deadline is set for the renewal of professional statutes so that they are updated to today's reality'. 'We accepted many modifications since this began. Supporting this law is not supporting large companies or 'bad bosses,' as some want us to believe. We believe this is an improved proposal compared to the initial one,' he valued. In turn, Recalde confirmed the rejection of the Justicialist bloc because the version that returned to the Senate 'is practically the same' as the one that was originally voted on. The camporist senator stated that it is a 'monstrous law' due to the number of laws it modifies and 'its content' itself. He also criticized that it was brought to the chamber 'expressly', with little prior debate. 'All these things are done when a law goes against the people. Stop lying! Argentina wants to grow again.'
