Congress returns to debate project that gives legislative powers to Milei and reforms the public sector

The Argentine Congress returns to discuss this Monday (28) Javier Milei's mega-bill to reform public administration. The text declares a state of emergency in the country and gives the president legislative powers on administrative, economic, financial and energy issues for one year.

This is the second attempt by the Milei government to pass the “Law of Bases and Starting Points for the Freedom of Argentines” through Congress. At the beginning of the mandate, the current government sent a text of more than 600 articles. The text was generally approved by the Chamber of Deputies, but articles were blocked from the specific vote and the government ended up withdrawing the project from the agenda.

Despite the new, leaner version of the Basic Law, which now contains around 230 articles and the government's optimism, there are still doubts whether the project will obtain the necessary votes to reach the Senate, where the scenario for government rule is even more difficult.

The text of the Basic Law, which was presented together with a project with fiscal measures, comprising over 60 articles, declares some state-owned companies, including the airline Aerolíneas Argentinas, as subject to privatization and allows intervention, reform and even dissolution of public bodies and organizations.

The bill also promotes reforms in the civil service. State workers from restructured or eliminated bodies will be available for one year, and if within this period they are not formalized in another body, they may be fired. The text determines that there will be a discount on remuneration for hours not worked in the event of a strike.

Among the proposed changes is the authorization for the Executive to renegotiate or terminate, for “force majeure reasons”, public works contracts or concessions in force and signed before December 2023, “as long as it is financially or economically more convenient for the public interest”.

The project also modifies labor law, increasing the trial period, in which the contractor can dismiss without paying compensation, from 3 to 6 months. In the case of companies with up to 100 workers, this period will be 8 months and, for companies with up to 5 workers, one year.

The law proposed by the government makes the time for which pregnant women are prohibited from working more flexible: it maintains the current law's leave of 45 days before giving birth, but allows it to be reduced to 10 days if requested by the pregnant woman. Unused leave days are accumulated and added to postpartum leave, also 45 days.

As for energy, the project changes the article that establishes that the National State and the provinces must receive the same amount for the exploration of hydrocarbon fields, and now only establishes that both are entitled to “a share” of the production. The text also includes the determination that “international trade in hydrocarbons will be free” and that, in addition to the import regime, the Executive Branch will also establish the export regime.

In the obligations of exploration concessionaires, the project removes the section of the law that requires the guarantee of “the maximum production of hydrocarbons compatible with the adequate and economic exploitation of the deposit and the observance of the criteria that guarantee a convenient conservation of the reserves”.

Source: CNN Brasil

You may also like