Overview
- Argentina’s government will formally submit its labor bill to the Senate for extraordinary sessions from December 10 to 30, with Senator Patricia Bullrich leading negotiations and room for commission-stage amendments.
- The draft cuts the severance pay base by excluding items like vacation and the 13th salary, and creates a mandatory Labor Assistance Fund (FAL) financed by a 3% contribution on the remuneration base used for employer social-security contributions.
- The plan lowers employer contributions for registered workers—services and commerce from 20.40% to 17.40% and other private employers from 18% to 15%—and favors new hires with reduced rates, while curbing union prerogatives by ending contract ultra-activity, elevating company-level bargaining, and tightening strike and assembly rules.
- Polling by Explanans finds about six in ten Argentines say a labor reform is necessary, as the CGT circulates a counterproposal for a more flexible regime for workers under 30.
- In Mexico, officials confirmed a phased reduction of the legal workweek starting March 1, 2026—two hours less per year to reach 40 hours by 2030—though analysts note that more than 55% of workers in informal jobs are unlikely to see immediate changes.