WORLD WORLDWIDE ARGENTINA News Journal Update - (en) Argentina, ICL-CIT: Organizacion-Obrera #97 - A FLEXIBILIZING LABOR REFORM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE GENERAL DEMOBILIZATION AND THE DETERIORATION OF THE LIVING CONDITIONS OF THE WORKING CLASS (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On April 17, they paraded through the Llao Llao catwalks in front of a select

group of businessmen, the main opposition candidates in view of the upcoming
elections. One of the topics on which these candidates elaborated was on the need
and content of a possible labor reform. This discussion is not at all new in
election times, but taking into account the political profile of the possible
winners (Rodríguez Larreta, Bullrich, Milei, etc.), the possibility of a labor
reform favorable to employers assumes a place each time more central in the
debates and electoral proposals. To this we must add that the general
demobilization of the labor organizations during these years of Peronist
government and the increasing deterioration of the living conditions of the
working class due to the adjustment policies of the IMF, lay the optimal
foundations for the future government. can materialize the labor reform that the
Macri government could not carry out due to the resistance of thousands of workers.

Along these lines, different media have been advancing the possible contents of
this labor reform, many of which are not new at all because they express
traditional demands of the exploitative business community. The arguments used by
the main spokespersons of capital to support the need for said labor reform can
be summarized in two. On the one hand, implanting the idea of an ever-changing
technological world that imposes, beyond our will, the need to modify our living
and working conditions. The other argument is the promotion of a new worker
model: the entrepreneur, always willing to change working conditions to live new
experiences and thus not be subject to stagnant work patterns.

We can take as an example of this type of argument, the article published by
Julián De Diego, a well-known Argentine business lawyer, in the legal magazine
"La Ley", entitled: "Pillars of a Labor Reform that Promotes Registered
Employment in Republican Democracy " (Year LXXXVII No. 40, 02/28/2023, p. 1-8).
In that article, De Diego points out: "Nothing will be like it was before the
pandemic, because many practices forced by circumstances have proven to be more
efficient than those that preceded them, and the home office, teleworking, the
unrestricted use of telematic tools, the invasion of the multiple Apps
(applications) expanded by all pre-existing human activity but also generating
new habits, new practices, and giving a lot of space for the process to follow
that path".

The labor reform would be a necessity imposed by technological determinism,
presumably accelerated by the pandemic, from which there is no escape and which
requires changing working conditions. Obviously, these changes in working
conditions are favorable to the employer and bring greater precariousness for
workers, which is why, behind this technological determinism, the interests and
desire for greater profits for the employer are always hidden. A good example of
this is the Teleworking Law imposed during the pandemic. The fact that thousands
of workers had to work from their homes due to the sanitary measures served to
establish a legal regime of teleworking that allows capital to enter our homes,
using them as workplaces for its benefit and altering our lives. familiar.

The possibility of capital using remote action technologies to impose working
conditions would be the new tools to dominate the working class, being able to
apply new strategies for these purposes and achieving new, increasingly
precarious forms of work. Technological determinism would be nothing more than a
use of technology favorable to the interests of capital.

Continuing with the article by Julián De Diego, it states: "The legislation of
the 21st century focuses on the promotion of multifunctional and multifactorial
opportunities for diversified and inclusive employment." The future labor reform
would bring new opportunities for change and development for a new subject: the
entrepreneur. Declassed and closer to the bourgeois values of his employer, the
entrepreneur would be the model of worker promoted by capital for that
technological future. This is a person always willing to change working
conditions to live new experiences and absorb new knowledge, an antithesis of the
Fordist worker with rigid work patterns. Labor flexibility is the world of
possibilities for personal and professional growth for workers, a "diversified"
and "inclusive" world for all those who want to be better exploited.

Functional versatility and the subject molded to it, the entrepreneur, are not at
all new in the recent history of employer claims, especially since the
progressive abandonment of the Fordist model of exploitation. During this last
model, a rigid and invariable labor law for the employer, known as labor public
order, was not necessarily against the interests of the employer. In short, the
Fordist model was a rigid and stable work model that did not absolutely need to
introduce permanent variations in working conditions. Although protection for
male and female workers was important, the labor public order did not essentially
clash with the use of labor power that capital made at that time. The most direct
clash of this labor legislation with the interests of capital is taking place at
this time, where the new strategies to take advantage of the work of others
increasingly require polyvalence and the flexibility of working conditions.
Therefore, far from labor flexibility being the scope to achieve the personal
growth of workers as it is promoted, it is instead so that the employer can use
these workers as he wishes with a view to his own interests as exploiting class.

The employers' efforts to objectify and give them pompous names that not even the
google proofreader recognizes, to different types of work that, ultimately,
express what suits their needs are truly admirable. To give an example, let us go
back to the article by Julián De Diego regarding what he proposes as a reform of
the working day regime: "The new exponential technologies have transformed human
work and have modified the role of people in the workplace. context of computing,
the use of telematic tools, robotics and the advent of artificial
intelligence...". Once again, technological determinism playing for employers,
and adds: "In this context, a wave of mechanisms for measuring and implementing
the working day appears again and, therefore, that also produces changes in the
temporary counterpart of the period of rest. We summarize the new cases, not
contemplated in the legislation:

- The virtual shift: the schedule for virtual work, which usually has active
periods and other inactive ones, and which can be extended at different times of
the 24-hour day;

- The dynamic working day: it is the one that offers changes and variants when
the conditions or circumstances of the work change, not only due to schedules and
seasons, but also due to customer habits, due to their changes, and due to the
waves of demand and the lapses of medium or low activity;

- The passive guard and the active guard: although it is a system used by doctors
and by civil defense services or firefighters, it poses the superimposition of
two modes of availability, a passive one where the worker must be expecting that
a emergency can make it active, and the other, that of the activity itself. This
method is also being used in factories or mass production processes of electronic
products, when there are emergencies, absenteeism, or extraordinary work demands;

- The split shift system: when the activity is divided into segments during the
daily shift, with more or less prolonged periods of inactivity or rest;

- The daily and weekly mini-work day: in activities that are habitual but of
short duration, such as the post office in distant places, which the worker only
operates for two or three hours a week;

- The variable workday managed by the teleworker: it is the one that the worker
himself arbitrates, within legal limits, depending on the requirements, ensuring
daily rest, but accommodating the schedule to the requirements of the service;

- The intensive workday: it is one that is generally linked to a continuous
service, and that requires breaks and limits to avoid work risks of a
psychosomatic nature;

- The relative or referential working day: it is the one that has oscillations
for a determined period, but of oscillating compliance, generally at the request
of the clients;

- Articulated or modular rest: it is the one that is modified on a daily basis,
combining the workload, face-to-face with virtuality..." (We cut it here, but it
goes on and on...).

As we said, the efforts of the spokespersons of capital to catalog and
differentiate what could be simplified by saying: "you work the number of hours
that the boss says" are admirable. And ultimately, that is what it is about,
taking advantage of the general demobilization of the working class during all
these years of the Peronist government and the serious deterioration of their
living conditions due to the adjustment policies imposed by the IMF, so that the
bosses can establish a labor reform that ends up enshrining its total control
over working conditions and at the lowest possible cost. The employers know that
it is at a favorable moment for this and is betting that the next government will
achieve that objective.

The challenges of the organized working class go through reversing this type of
discourse from the ideological point of view and collectively confronting any
attempt to implement a labor reform with these characteristics. The days of
struggle in December 2017 against Macri's labor reform are a recent example that
the workers' organization can stop any attempt at a more flexible labor reform.
For this, it is crucial to reinforce the horizontal, independent and federative
organization, demonstrating to employers the strength of collective direct action
to impose their interests and achieve better working conditions and conquer a
different form of social organization.

https://organizacion-obrera.fora.com.ar/2023/05/01/una-reforma-laboral-flexibilizadora-aprovechando-la-desmovilizacion-general-y-el-deterioro-de-las-condiciones-de-vida-de-la-clase-trabajadora/
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